Naruto: Just a Dream
by bldude
Summary: Naruto wakes up from a dream to find that the world is different from what he remembers. Or is it really? Canon Universe with an AU Alternate -like Naruto.
1. Wake up Naruto!

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters, and this story itself.**

**Summary: **Naruto wakes up from a dream to find that the world is different from what he remembers. Or is it really? Canon Universe with an AU-like Naruto

**General Warning: **This story contains graphic violence, language, suggestive themes, and AU Naruto.

_Author's Note: This story came to me in a dream, literally. I was dreaming about a seriously AU Naruto plot, with the belief in the dream that it was canon. When I woke up and realized how AU it was…well, the basis of this story came together._

_Edit 1: Just modified the heading a little bit.  
_

OOOOOO

_*Pak*_ A piece of chalk bounced off his head.

"Naruto, wake the hell up!" A voice yelled.

Naruto opened his eyes, wiped some drool off the side of mouth and looked around, confused. He was sitting in an academy classroom. A group of what appeared to be academy students were laughing at him, and a strangely familiar man was standing in front of the classroom, glaring at him. Naruto frowned, he could've sworn he was attending a lecture by the Hokage, did he fall asleep? Dozing off while the leader of the village was speaking was a big no-no, especially for a shinobi under his command. Was this some sort of prank by the Sandaime to get back at him? His head was pounding hard.

"Naruto, are you paying attention!" The man yelled, interrupting his thoughts. Naruto refocused his attention on the man, noticing that the man wore a chuunin vest. _"Sounds about right to be an academy teacher"_ He thought. He looked closer, checking his build and facial features.

Then Naruto gasped. With a start, he realized who the man was. _"Iruka-sensei."_

He was very different from the one he remembered though. For one, the real Iruka didn't have that horizontal scar across his face, and the real Iruka was a jounin. But the resemblance was uncanny.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" 'Iruka-sensei' asked, looking irritated.

Naruto grinned, knowing he was in some sort of genjutsu after all. He tried to shake himself awake more, formed the genjutsu dissipation hand seal and shouted "Kai!", momentarily stopping his chakra flow, then flaring it up to dispel whatever genjutsu there was.

Nothing happened. Naruto frowned, his chakra felt a little strange, it felt like he had used more than he had intended, but the effectiveness of the technique shouldn't have changed due to that.

"Naruto, what was that?" 'Iruka' asked, looking concerned now.

The rest of the class were either snickering quietly or giving weird looks at Naruto.

"Iruka-sensei, I think he just tried to dispel genjutsu." A boy in the back said.

Naruto glanced over at the kid, the pineapple shaped hair and facial features were a dead giveaway to the Nara Clan, but aside from that, he didn't recognize him. _"What do I mean? It's just that lazy bum Shikamaru."_ Shikamaru? That's…right, he does know him, he's been in the same class with him for four years now.

Naruto growled, shaking his head again, his head was starting to hurting more, was this part of the genjutsu? His release should've dissipated the genjutsu, but with that strange feeling in his chakra when he tried earlier, it could've thrown off his technique.

Well, there was another, even more effective genjutsu dispel technique, pain foreign to the directives of the genjutsu would disrupt it. Naruto reached for a kunai, and frowned when he realized his weapon holster was missing. Shrugging, he just bit his thumb instead…and felt the pain. Still no change in his surroundings.

Now, he was getting worried. He couldn't break out of this genjutsu, or was this a genjutsu at all? Even pain hadn't worked. Well, he could always backtrack.

Naruto stood up, scratching the back of his head, "Sorry Iruka-sensei, I gotta go!"

"What do you mean Naruto-" Naruto interrupted by using a long range shunshin, focusing on the Hokage Tower with the precise image in mind for an accurate jump. He disappeared with a flourish of illusory leaves.

The class was dead silent with Naruto's departure.

"Iruka-sensei, where did Naruto go?" Haruno Sakura asked, staring at the blond boy's now empty seat.

"That…that was the shunshin no jutsu…" Iruka replied distractedly, looking shocked.

Uchiha Sasuke frowned, "How did the dobe know a technique like that? Even most genin don't know it."

"Troublesome." Nara Shikamaru sighed, leaning back in his chair.

OOOOOO

The Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen wanted to just slam his face on his desk. He didn't want to take up the job of Hokage again, but after his predecessor had died, there was no one else qualified to give the job to. With the job came the greatest bane of his existence. Paperwork!

Piles of them were stacked high on every square inch of his desk. There was even some on the floor, the desk having run out of space. He desperately wanted an excuse to get out of his office, away from all these...tax forms...requisition requests, memos...Just for a break…

_*Boom!*_

Startled, the Hokage looked up at the sudden sound. It had come from outside his office, already, his ANBU guards were shouting indistinctly. Well, there's his excuse he supposed, he got up, smiling. His paperwork could wait.

OOOOOO

Naruto groaned in pain. He had seriously overpowered his shunshin somehow. That hadn't happened in years, not since before he had mastered the technique. He supposed after what happened to his genjutsu dispel, he should've known better than to use chakra, but his headache had distracted him.

He tried to get up, but hands forced him down, and ninja wire coiled around him. He looked around, and saw a squad of ANBU surrounding him. Oh right, the Hokage's ANBU guards. He supposed they were responding to his badly executed shunshin, but why were they tying him up? He tried to see if he recognized any of them, but his vision was blurring and he couldn't make out the masks.

The doors to the Hokage's office swung open to reveal the Sandaime Hokage, in his signature robes and pointy hat.

"Hey…Oji-san…" Naruto murmured, before slumping into unconsciousness, his headache proving too much for him.

OOOOOO

The Hokage sighed, "Naruto. I bet he's cutting class to prank me. While I appreciate you guys for stopping whatever he had planned, isn't the wire a bit much?" At least this would get him out of his paperwork for a while.

An ANBU with a hawk mask saluted the Hokage, "Hokage-sama, he got into the lobby with a shunshin."

The Hokage's face turned grim, "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Positive, it looked like he botched it a bit though. His body was stuck in the after cast, and he didn't land on his feet." Hawk replied.

Another ANBU with a leopard mask looked up from his diagnostic, "Hokage-sama, he's not under a henge or genjutsu, this _is_ Uzumaki Naruto."

A third ANBU operative, this one with an Oryx mask came in, "Just checked, seals are fine, Uzumaki Naruto came in with valid identification seals." She reported.

The Hokage tower was heavily sealed against intrusion. An academy student wouldn't have had the necessary clearance seal to shunshin directly into the tower, let alone his office's lobby, past all the standard security checkpoints. And Naruto…last week when he visited Naruto, the hyperactive boy could barely manage a passable kawarimi, much less a shunshin.

"_Ugh…maybe paperwork wasn't so bad after all."_ The Hokage thought. Outwardly, he sighed, "Bring Naruto to the hospital, we'll ask him about this when he wakes up. I'm going to see Iruka."

OOOOOO

Author's End Note: This and two other story ideas popped into my head recently. Like I said, I came up with the idea for this story when I woke up today. I'll see how much I can get down during the summer. I have summer classes though, so expect sporadic updates. This is just the start, the next chapter will more or less fully explain what's going on.


	2. It was only a Dream

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and any original characters, that's all…**

**General Warning:** This story contains graphic violence, sexual themes, graphic language and sheer awesomeness.

**Author's Note: **I'm beginning to think that I should've picked a different title. Just a Dream seems more apt for a prequel! By the way, my story assumes that the reader has at least a basic knowledge of either the anime or manga of Naruto. Please review and give me meaningful criticism and/or advice!

OOOOOO

_A woman in labor, a blond man by her side. An elderly nurse whispering calming words…_

"_It's a boy!" The nurse announces proudly._

_2 years old: First Memory_

_Little Naruto stared at his mommy. Something red swung across his eyes. He grabbed some of it and pulled. _

"_Ouch! Naruto!"_

_He giggled, his mommy smiled back even though his hands still pulled at her hair._

_Somewhere in the house, a door opened. "Kushina, I'm home!"_

_Even with the loud shout, little Naruto somehow fell back to sleep…_

_3 years old:_

_There were men and women all in this office. Naruto didn't really understand any of it, and just looked around._

"_It's confirmed, Sunagakure, Iwagakure, and Otogakure have joined together in an alliance. Jiraiya's intel suggests a surprise offensive in fifteen days." An old man said. Naruto had talked to him earlier. Called him jiji. His mommy called him the sandaime…_

"_The leader of Otogakure, as you all know, is my former student, Orochimaru." The old man continued._

"_Should've killed him when you had the chance." Another man scoffed._

_The blond man with the funny hat interrupted, "That's enough Danzo, we can't change the past. Let's focus on the present. We've already started a discrete mobilization of our forces. Iwagakure is still weak from the last war, Sunagakure isn't so good either, and their Daimyo's been cutting their funding every year. Furthermore, they would have to have long supply chains to reach us anyways. The main threat is Otogakure. Orochimaru's managed to gather several thousand shinobi together. It's a veritable threat, and Rice Country is very close to us, the main fighting will take place there."…_

_Naruto fell asleep again. When in doubt, go to sleep was what he did._

_4 years old:_

_Uzumaki Naruto waited as the matron finished bandaging his knee. As soon as she was finished, Naruto was off._

"_No running in the halls Naruto, or do you want to scrape your other knee!" The matron called after him._

_Naruto had lived in Konohagakure's Orphanage for Children for almost a year now. He didn't remember his parents that well, although to be frank, he thought he was lucky to remember something about them at all. His other friends here didn't know anything about their own parents._

_His clearest memory was of a fire, and people fighting. He could always impress the other kids with retellings of that story. He remembered his mother had red hair. He didn't see his father much, but his dad had…yellow hair. The adults wouldn't tell him anything about his parents…_

_4 years old:_

"_Naruto! Come to my office now!" The matron shouted._

"_Ha! You're in trouble now!" Another boy told him._

"_Yeah, yeah, I don't think so, the matron likes me." Naruto replied._

_None of the others could refute that; the matron did seem to have a soft spot where Naruto was concerned. She was always worried about his safety, and making sure he had enough food. Naruto himself didn't know why._

_When Naruto got to the office, the Matron was sitting behind her desk and there was a man inside the room, in red and white robes, and a Konoha shinobi uniform partly visible underneath._

_Naruto gasped in recognition._

"_Hello Naruto, do you know who this is?" The matron asked._

"_You're the Hokage!" Naruto exclaimed with awe. The Fourth Hokage had ended the third great shinobi war, and was now fighting bravely in the fourth. He was the youngest man to receive the title of Hokage and was famous around the elemental nations. Whenever he and his friends played ninja, he always wanted to be the famous Yellow Flash of Konoha._

"_Yes, and anything else Naruto?" The matron asked, looking intently at the boy._

"_And…and you're my hero! I really look up to you!" Naruto gushed._

_The fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato gave Naruto a strange smile that looked both half sad, and half proud._

"_Thank you Naruto-kun, I really appreciate it." Turning to the matron, Minato sighed wistfully, "I suppose it's for the best."_

"_It won't be forever Hokage-sama." The matron gently replied._

"_Um, what's going on Hokage-sama?" Naruto asked, emulating the matron's reverence of his hero figure._

"_Ah, Naruto, in a few days, I'll be heading off to lead an offensive in this war to break the current stalemate. But before I'm going, I decided to visit you. See, I heard great things about you Naruto-kun." The Hokage answered, smiling._

"_Wow! Really?" Naruto asked. The Hokage thought he was great? That was awesome!_

"_Yup, I heard that you always help others out, and that you have a lot of energy, you work hard in pretty much everything you do. Our village needs more people like you Naruto, I'm proud of you!" The Hokage bent down and ruffled Naruto's hair playfully._

_Naruto winced but put up with it, it __**was**__ the Hokage after all, "Cool, thanks! I think…" Naruto stared up at the expectant Hokage and thought about it. He grinned, "I think I want to be Hokage when I grow up! Just like you!"_

_For a moment, Minato looked shocked, then he smiled gently. "Of course Naruto, and I think you can make it too Naruto. But Naruto, becoming the Hokage is going to be hard. Can you work hard enough to make it? And more importantly, do you have in you, the Will of Fire?"_

"_The…the Will of Fire?" Naruto asked, confused._

"_The Will of Fire is what gives us the strength to fight against all odds, and to have the strength and willpower to fight for Konoha, especially for those that can't fight for themselves. Being a shinobi of the Leaf and thus, the Hokage means that you have to protect everyone, can you do that Naruto?" Minato explained solemnly._

_The Will of Fire…to protect everyone. Naruto glanced at the matron, who smiled at Naruto's look. Looking back at the Hokage, he thought hard._

_"I have the Will of Fire, I'll become the Hokage for sure and protect everyone! Dattebayo!" Naruto confidently stated. Both the matron and the Hokage sighed at the verbal tic._

"_Then I'll be waiting to hand this hat to you Naruto." Minato smiled._

_4 years old:_

_Naruto was dressed in black, like everyone else. He stared dumbly at the procession._

"_The Hokage has fallen in battle!"_

_A gnarled old hand clasped Naruto's shoulder. Naruto looked up to see the Sandaime._

"_It's alright Naruto…" The old man sighed, "It's my fault really, if I had finished my former student for good…"_

_Another old man, one Naruto recognized as looking shifty came up and clasped the sandaime's shoulder, making the three of them look like some sort of connected line._

"_It's alright Hiruzen. It's over. Let it go, Minato finished it for you. He took out Orochimaru and over a thousand enemy shinobi before falling. His sacrifice alone has effectively taken Otogakure out of the war. The best we can do is to finish it for him." The man said._

"_I guess you're right Danzo. I'll finish it, the council has asked me to take up the hat again…I think I'll say yes." Hiruzen said. He ruffled Naruto's hair just like the Hokage had…_

"_Ah, Jiji, I want to become a ninja! Can I join the academy?" Naruto asked._

_Both men looked shocked. Sarutobi Hiruzen sputtered._

"_N-Naruto, you're only four!" He replied, surprised at Naruto's sudden outburst._

"_But jiji, Reiji, Yui and the others are the same age as me, and they got accepted into the academy already! And I'm almost five anyways!" Naruto whined._

_The third hokage gritted his teeth, it was true, Konoha needed more manpower, and had seriously lowered the age restrictions for the academy and for genin graduation. They needed more cannon fodder, as much as it pained Hiruzen to admit it. Looking at Naruto though, he shook his head resolutely. The life expectancy for new genin at __**nine**__ years of age was one and a half battles, there was no way he'd put Naruto in the academy. He had promised __**them**__ to take care of Naruto after all…_

"_Naruto, you're-" The Third began, "Just a minute Hiruzen, Naruto, why do you want to join the academy?" Danzo interrupted, "Becoming a ninja is a hard job, especially with a war going on, this isn't about…saving beautiful princesses, gaining fame or rescuing the daimyo is it?" Danzo asked. The Third glared at Danzo for his interruption, but looked attentive for Naruto's answer as well._

_Naruto turned to face both men properly, and stood up straight. "I want to become a ninja so that I can protect everyone, I promised the Hokage that I would, and I'll become Hokage too! I never go back on my word, that's…that's my nindo!" He proclaimed._

_Hiruzen actually gasped softly at Naruto's bold statement. Danzo looked thoughtful._

_Danzo nodded slowly, "Then I think that you'd fit right in as a shinobi of the Leaf Naruto."_

_Hiruzen gave Naruto a look, "Are you sure about this Naruto? You could die and you'd have to kill others as a ninja."_

_Danzo scoffed, "He's already in danger, considering last year's assassination att-"_

"_Danzo." Hiruzen silenced his old teammate with a glare._

"_He can learn to defend himself. It's better than simple anonymity." Danzo countered._

"…_Alright."_

OOOOOO

_6 Years old:_

"_Well, let's begin by introducing ourselves." Their jounin leader said. He had tanned skin, a standard Konoha jounin uniform, and his hair gathered up in a ponytail._

"_I'll start off, my name is Umino Iruka, I'm 16 years old, and a jounin of Konohagakure. I like going to the hot springs and eating ramen. I dislike…Oto-nin. That's because they killed my parents. I suppose the Fourth has avenged their deaths when he killed that snake Orochimaru. I'll do my best to protect all of you and lead you to safety." He said. He gestured for the second oldest member of the team to start._

_The boy had dark hair and pale skin. He had an unusually serious look for one so young, "My name is Uchiha Itachi. I am 11 years old and a chuunin of Konohagakure. My favorite foods are cabbage and seaweed onigiri. I want to protect Konoha from all those that attack it. As your second in command, I'll do my utmost to safeguard you all." He finished._

_Naruto grinned, it was his turn, "Hi! My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I'm 6 years old, and I just became a genin of Konohagakure! My favorite food is ramen! I don't like vegetables and the waiting time for the ramen to cook! My dream…my dream is to become Hokage and protect everyone. I promise to protect everyone; I never go back on my word, that's my ninja way!"_

_Itachi stared and Iruka had his mouth open slightly. Itachi then smiled, "That's a good ambition Naruto."_

_Iruka brushed his nose, chuckling, "If you like ramen that much, I'll show you a place called Ichiraku afterwards. They make great ramen there!"_

_Naruto gave a happy smile, "Thanks Taichou!"_

"_Just Iruka, please, now, last but not least…"_

_The last member of their team, a girl with pale skin, big pupil less eyes, a headband over her forehead and her hitai-ate around her neck spoke up, "Hello, my name is Hyuuga Satomi. I'm 5 years old and a member of the Hyuuga Branch family. I like training with my big brother Neji, and helping my cousin Hinata with her flower garden. I want to prove myself to my father and uncle and protect Konoha."_

_Iruka grinned, "Well, it looks like we have a pair of veritable prodigies on our team. I heard that both of you graduated in under a year. That's impressive, we'll receive our first mission together in two days, but first, Ichiraku Ramen, my treat."_

_They got up with Naruto bouncing around in joy._

OOOOOO

_6 years old:_

_His hands shook. It had been so easy. A droplet of blood fell from the tip of his kunai. One clean cut across the neck. The girl he had killed, an iwa-nin he noted absently from her headband didn't look much older than him. Maybe two or three years older, no more than ten he'd say. It looked like Konoha wasn't the only one with manpower problems. He wasn't vomiting or crying like Satomi had when she made her first. What did that say about him?_

_The grass rustled. Naruto immediately turned around, his kunai ready and his hands already in the process of forming the seals for the kawarimi._

"_Relax Naruto-kun, it's just me." A shinobi in a leaf chuunin vest approached._

_Naruto stared into the blood red eyes of his teammate Itachi. Three black comma-like tomoe swirled around in the Uchiha's eyes- the mark of a fully formed Sharingan, the kekkai genkai the Uchiha clan was famous for. "Itachi-senpai…"_

_Itachi glanced at the dead iwa kunoichi with her neck split open and Naruto's still shaking hands. "Don't worry Naruto, it gets easier."_

_7 years old:_

"_And what about these two? They're kids! Are you sure they can do their job? That boy there, he doesn't look any older than six, and that girl is even smaller!" The samurai sneered._

"_I'm __**seven**__, samurai-san." Naruto retorted._

"_Samurai-san, I can guarantee you that both Naruto and Satomi are talented and experienced shinobi of the Leaf. They have both partaken in at least a dozen battles each." Iruka mollified the samurai._

_The samurai nodded, "Alright, but your role in this battle will be very important. I don't want to go through with all this preparation only to discover that you guys aren't able to perform your ninjutsu."_

"_We'll do our job, don't worry." Iruka replied._

_After the samurai went out of earshot, Naruto snorted, "Arrogant prick."_

"_It's not his fault Naruto, Fire Country's samurai forces have a different lifestyle compared to us shinobi. A samurai at your age would still be practicing basic sword moves with a bokken. They train for decades before going into battle." Iruka admonished._

"_But still, you'd think after this many years into the war that they would get used to seeing younger shinobi. I mean, they've probably fought plenty of them as well!" Satomi argued._

"_The samurai did have a point though. The strategy we're using will take a lot of chakra to pull off. He was rightly concerned that you two wouldn't be able to produce enough chakra for it." Itachi responded in place of Iruka._

"_It's only a C-rank jutsu." Naruto scoffed, playing it down even though he knew he'd probably only have enough chakra to pull off one shot._

_The next day…_

_About 3000 Fire Country samurai and warriors charged across the open field. On the other side, the same number of Wind Country soldiers mirrored them, with a number of Suna-nin mixed in as well._

_They got closer and closer, about 300 meters away from each other however, a shimmering veil of energy dissipated in front of the Fire Country forces…_

_Naruto was side by side with his teammates. Itachi sent a fireball off to the enemy force with the Uchiha Clan's signature __**Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu**__._

_Naruto made handseals, tiger, ox, dog, rabbit, and finally snake, channeling his chakra through the patterns of each seal and releasing it. __**Fuuton: Daitoppa**__!_

_His technique fanned the flames of Itachi's katon, improving its power two fold, as well as several nearby fire release techniques as each of the 200 Konoha-nin shot off similar jutsu. A great wall of rolling flames roared over the Wind Country forces, engulfing hundreds._

_They had been hidden under a cleverly created 35 layered genjutsu. Even before the battle, their troop movements had been carefully hidden and had little by little, traveled to the staging grounds. Intelligence suggested that they had successfully moved their shinobi force to the front undetected. This all culminated in a surprise barrage right at the battle's start, to swing the odds in their favor. The move had taken out several hundred Wind Country soldiers._

_The Wind force had lost all momentum in the center. The Fire Country Samurai yelled battle cries and charged in, cavalry troops rumbled through the now open center, separating the two disorganized sides of the enemy force._

_Naruto, breathing heavily after doing that wind release, charged right in with them. He paired up with Satomi, they had learned how each other fought very well over the last year they were together. They covered each other efficiently, wading into the chaotic battlefield, amidst war cries and screams of defeat. Naruto fired off a kunai at a random Wind soldier, nailing him in the throat. The man went down, gurgling._

"_Naruto, crack and pop up front." Satomi warned._

_A fully armored Wind samurai approached them, lacquered armor gleaming in the sunlight. The warrior wore heavy armor, and was further protected by channeling chakra into the specially designed armor, making the armor virtually impervious to most regular weapons. This man strode to the pair of child shinobi, sword raised and ready to cut them down._

_Naruto scoffed, and raised his own konoha chakra blade. He dashed forward and slashed. The samurai was obviously confident in his armor's defense, and made no move to block Naruto's attack. To his shock, the blade cut right through, the wind chakra being channeled into the chakra blade easily slicing through the samurai's own chakra imbued armor and cutting into the man's flesh._

_Before the samurai could recover, Satomi had smoothly switched places with Naruto and used a palm strike to hit him in the now exposed chest. Her family's taijutsu style of combat, the jyuuken or gentle fist allowed her to bypass his outer body and hit his vital organs directly. The samurai's heart stopped._

_As the samurai staggered, Naruto swapped with Satomi again, and using his blade, cut open the samurai's body. The man dropped bonelessly, splattering blood and intestines all over the ground. Sure, with a stopped heart, he would've died quickly anyways, but the last time they had used this move, their opponent had tried to use his last seconds of life to avenge himself. He had nearly succeeded, and since then, Satomi sported a long, nasty scar across her abdomen._

_Naruto dispassionately flicked the dead man's blood off his blade before motioning for Satomi to continue on._

_Together, using the same technique, they confronted and killed nine more Wind samurai. Before they knew it however…_

_The field was suddenly empty. Around them hundreds of Fire samurai, warriors and fellow leaf ninja cheered, standing on the bodies, gore and blood of thousands. Maybe a hundred Wind Country and Suna-nin stragglers tried to run. A unit of Fire Country cavalry gave chase._

_That night…_

_Naruto wolfed down his fourteenth bowl of ramen. It wasn't as good as Ichiraku, but ramen was ramen._

"_Geez Naruto! Slow down, I know ramen's good, but how the heck can you eat so much!" Iruka cried._

_Another konoha-nin, a jounin, with shoulder length white hair chuckled. "Well, he did use that daitoppa today, he's a growing boy, he's going to need a couple thousand calories to replenish his chakra." _

"_But c'mon Mizuki, __**fourteen**__ bowls?" _

"_True, I guess that is a lot. Personally, I don't see what's so good about ramen." Mizuki continued. At Naruto and Iruka's sudden glares, he quickly rectified himself, "But hey, to each and his own." Mizuki started to munch on some dango._

_In the distance, the Fire Country troops were still celebrating. Their cries of "Victory! Victory! Victory!" was audible even from across the camp._

_Satomi walked in, covered only with some chest wrapping and pants. She shook her head, "With the way those troops are celebrating, you'd think we had just won the war."_

_Uchiha Itachi came in behind Satomi, completely silent. "Let them celebrate, we did just win a massive victory. We killed well over 5/6ths of the enemy force with just over 10% losses on our own side." _

_Satomi jumped, turning around in surprise, her right hand already reaching into her weapon holster. She paused and gave a sigh of relief when she recognized Itachi's voice._

"_Don't scare me like that Itachi." She glared._

_Itachi raised an eyebrow and strode past her to the food table. "My apologies Satomi." He said as he picked up a stick of dango._

_Then, the samurai general that had mocked them yesterday for their young age came in. Instead of his earlier demeanor though, this time, he looked…contrite._

_Iruka turned to greet the general. "Ah, samurai-san, how may we help you?"_

"_I've come to apologize. Naruto and Satomi was it? I saw how you two fought today. You accounted for many samurai. I was wrong to judge you by your age. I apologize for my insults shinobi-san. If it wasn't for your aid, we would not have won such a great victory." The samurai said, bowing slightly._

_Well, that was deep gratitude coming from a samurai, considering how high ranking this one was._

_Naruto bowed, "Thank you, I accept your apology samurai-san."_

_Satomi bowed as well, "Thank you, and we're in this together, it's our job after all."_

OOOOOO

_8 years old:_

_A dark long haired man with a bare forehead and pupil less eyes observed the kneeling blond boy. "With the authority vested in me by the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, I promote Uzumaki Naruto to the rank of chuunin."_

_Naruto rose, "Thank you Hyuuga-sama."_

_Hyuuga Hiashi nodded, and moved to the second person. "With the authority vested in me by the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, I promote Hyuuga Satomi to the rank of chuunin." This time he smiled._

_Satomi also rose, "Thank you Hyuuga-sama."_

"_Ah, you may be the youngest Hyuuga to make chuunin rank Satomi-chan. Not yet 7 years old. Even the prodigious Uchiha clan heir was only made chuunin at an older age than you, my niece. You hold the record alongside Hatake Kakashi."_

_Both Naruto and Satomi mentally rolled their eyes, and after glancing at each other, knew for sure they had both done the same thing._

_Later…_

_Both brand new chuunin were trying on their new flak jackets and standard konoha uniforms._

_As she was adjusting the slip in protective ceramic ballistic plates, Satomi said, "Did you hear? Itachi-senpai was transferred."_

_Naruto nodded while securing his weapon holster to his new shinobi trousers. "Yeah, he got into the ANBU Black Ops. We aren't supposed to know that, but he told me anyway. Don't mention it to anyone though, or he might get in trouble."_

_Satomi frowned, "Huh. Still, I can't believe it, we just made chuunin and he's left the team."_

"_He's meant for greater things," Naruto grinned. "Besides, we still got each other and Iruka-taichou. And I heard that we're also joining together with a new battle group. We're going to the Northern Front."_

"_So that's going to be against iwa again and whatever's left of oto…" Satomi mused._

_8 years old:_

_The moon was totally obscured by the clouds this night, and in the darkness, Naruto could barely see his comrades around him._

"_C'mon brats, get a move on!" Jounin Mitarashi Anko yelled, leading the way as they hopped from tree to tree, using chakra to boost their leaps._

_Well, the two of them __**were**__ the youngest on the team, the third youngest was Uchiha Hikaru, at 10._

"_Don't worry about us Anko-san!" Satomi shouted back. "Snake bitch…" she muttered under her breath. Only Naruto heard her, and he just smiled._

_Their new team had 15 shinobi, made up of 3 jounins, Anko, Iruka, and Mizuki, 2 tokubetsu jounin, Gekkou Hayate, who was a kenjutsu prodigy apparently, Inuzuka Hana, along with her three Haimaru brothers clan dogs, and 10 chuunin, including them._

_Mizuki made the halt sign in Konoha's shinobi sign language. Everyone came to a stop, eyes sharp, looking carefully all directions. "Alright, we're at the rendezvous point." He said._

"_The sun is bright today like a ball of fire in the sky. The leaves of the tree grow under its warmth." Mizuki recited, seemingly to no one at all._

_A voice echoed out of nowhere, "And we are the leaves that grow underneath in the shade. Kai."_

_With that last word, the air appeared hazy and a quartet of Konoha ANBU operatives shimmered into view._

_Someone, probably another young chuunin gave a small gasp. Naruto didn't blame whoever it was, ALL of them were on high alert and they didn't notice the ANBU standing not 5 meters right in front of them._

"_So you're blue team huh?" Mizuki asked._

_The ANBU team leader nodded, "Yes, I'm Eagle, this is Otter," Indicating dark haired woman, "Coyote" pointing to a bald man, "And Weasel" pointing to the shortest member of his team. Only Weasel nodded when he was introduced._

"_I'm Touji Mizuki, leader of 17__th__ platoon. These are my squad leaders Umino Iruka and Mitarashi Anko." Mizuki said, pointing at each person in turn. Anko gave a little wave and a grin._

"_Very well, we'll proceed with phase 1 of the operation. Move out." Eagle ordered._

_With nods of confirmation, each of the 19 shinobi went off under the cover of the night._

_The operation was a fairly straightforward one. With Sunagakure effectively defeated after nearly half a decade of continuous war and having to maintain long supply chains across the desert, only Iwagakure was left. Konohagakure as well as several smaller allies like Kusagakure and Takigakure were launching a massive offensive along the northeastern front. Teams like Naruto's own were destroying border bases all at the same time. 24 bases were being targeted simultaneously to make the most of the advantage of surprise, the vanguard of the main offensive was more than a week away, and they were operating in enemy territory._

_Naruto blended in with the surrounding forest, his green and navy blue konoha uniform perfect for the task, and his otherwise distinctive spiky blond hair covered under the bandana portion of his hitai-ate. Somewhere a couple meters to his right was Satomi, hidden well enough that he couldn't even make her out._

_One of the ANBU operatives, Weasel came up from his left, signing for them to follow him. _

_Naruto acknowledged, and out of the corner of his eye, saw Satomi doing the same._

"_Long time no see Fishcake-kun." Weasel said._

_Naruto glanced at the ANBU, puzzled; only Itachi called him that._

_Satomi gasped, "Itachi-san!"_

_Naruto shook his head, chuckling. "Of course you'd get a weasel mask, it suits you."_

_Itachi turned to Naruto, and even with a mask on, Naruto could tell he was raising an eyebrow quizzically. "Oh? How so Naruto-kun?"_

_Naruto grinned brightly, "Well, you act all cold and um, like uncaring all the time, but we know you're just a big softie on the inside, just like a weasel is, right?"_

"_Really Naruto." Itachi deadpanned._

"_Or __**maybe**__, there's the fact that your name means weasel Itachi-san, just like Naruto's is fishcake." Satomi smirked._

"_Oi! My name means maelstrom!" Naruto protested._

"_Whatever you say fishcake."_

"_Time to go silent you two." Itachi warned. They were approaching the perimeter of the enemy camp._

_Both chuunin immediately hushed up and followed Itachi's lead. The enemy camp was a triangular setup, three different earthwork walls risen up to protect rows of tents and a few more permanent structures of wood and stone._

_There were a few shinobi looking outwards, and several patrols as well, but Itachi obviously knew the routes somehow, and signed for when to stop and hide or when to move again. All three of them were carefully suppressing their chakra. With years of practice under each of their belts, Naruto couldn't sense either Itachi or Satomi's signatures despite staring straight at them._

_It was slow going, they had exited the forest and were moving through high grass. Over the next 40 minutes, they methodically inched their way through the undergrowth, past lantern carrying guards, until they reached the earth wall. Naruto could tell the wall had been made from a doton jutsu judging by the patterns of the base._

_I'll proceed with phase 2. You two plant your tags along this wall. Wait for me to come back when you're finished back at this spot. If the alarm is raised, go to phase 4 immediately, otherwise, stay put. Itachi signed. Naruto and Satomi acknowledged._

_Itachi used a grappling hook to traverse the wall, not even the miniscule amount of chakra used for wall walking could be risked, secrecy was the only advantage they held in this operation._

_Naruto and Satomi started planting explosive tags on the wall at specific intervals, pushing them in to make sure they adhered properly. Elsewhere on each side of the base, the other members of their team were doing the same. The tags were on a remote fuse and would go off simultaneously. _

_They finished, and went back to the meeting spot. They didn't need to wait long, with barely a whisper, Itachi scaled the wall again and had dropped down between them._

_Let's go He signed._

_They had just reached the cover of the forest again after another half an hour of painstakingly slow progress past all the patrols again when the tags blew._

_The night sky was suddenly alight with fire as hundreds of carefully placed explosive tags detonated sequentially. Tents burned and sleeping soldiers were incinerated. The buildings went up in explosions of rock, shrapnel and meter long splinters of wood that impaled anyone nearby. The earthen walls crumbled and collapsed from the force of dozens of blossoming blasts._

_Eagle nodded, satisfied with the results, "Fall out, we're heading back."_

_Anko grinned vivaciously, "Good job kiddies, you're not so bad after all."_

"_Watch out for surviving patrols and stragglers." Mizuki warned._

"_Pfft, no one could've survived that." Naruto replied._

_10 minutes later, he would eat those words._

"_Sir, we've got enemy forces coming in from the left, twelve signatures- Closing fast!" Otter warned._

_Eagle swore, "Battle formations, stay calm, we outnumber them."_

"_You just had to open your mouth didn't you Naruto?" Satomi hissed, before drawing ten kunai, five on each hand and activating her byakugan. Naruto shrugged in reply, drawing his trusty chakra blade in his left hand and a quartet of shuriken in his right.  
_

_"Incoming!"  
_

_A sudden gale of scything wind blasted through the woods towards the konoha forces. Fore-warned and prepared, the leaf-nin all dodged the fuuton jutsu successfully. As the gust blew past harmlessly, a dozen shinobi charged into their midst. Most wore iwagakure hitai-ate, but there were a few with hitai-ate sporting a musical note- remnants of Otogakure, its shinobi still fighting on even years after their leader, the traitor konoha-nin and sannin member Orochimaru died in combat against the Fourth Hokage._

_An interestingly white haired boy in a gray outfit charged in front. Naruto channeled wind chakra into his shuriken, making them a lot sharper and stronger than normal before throwing them right at him. The iwa-nin seemed to scoff, raising a katana to knock them away._

_Behind him however, the next iwa-nin realized that the shuriken were coated with wind chakra and shouted a warning, "Rikimaru you idiot! Move!"_

_It came too late however, the iwa-nin had already swung his blade to knock the shuriken aside. To his utmost surprise, the wind chakra coated ninja stars spun through and shattered his sword, before plowing a quartet of fist sized holes through his torso. The momentum of his charge let him move a few more feet forward before dropping to the ground and sliding the last bit, making a bloody smear on the forest foliage. _

_Naruto smirked at the easy kill, around him his teammates were moving to engage each enemy ninja. The iwa-nin that had tried to warn his teammate drew a wakizashi and swung at Naruto._

_Naruto countered the attack with a kunai. They had a blade-lock for two seconds before disengaging at the same time. All around them the sounds of combat, blades clashing, fists flying, shuriken whistling through the air, the forest was alive with echoes._

"_Too bad your friend was a dumbass eh?" Naruto taunted._

"_Shut up!" The iwa-nin charged forward, swinging his wakizashi in an overhead cut with both hands. _

_Naruto blocked with his kunai, but his opponent was bigger and stronger, and Naruto got forced to the ground on his knees with the heavy hit._

_Despite this, Naruto grinned, "But I guess you're a dumbass too."_

_Before the iwa-nin could respond, Naruto slashed out with his __**left**__ hand, the one still holding his chakra blade through the unprotected midsection of his opponent. His blade tore through cloth, flesh, bone and sinew, spraying blood all over Naruto. The iwa-nin dropped, the two sections of his body hanging on by a sliver of meat._

"_Tatsumaru! You bastard!" A voice cried out, before a young iwa kunoichi blindsided Naruto._

_Naruto swore, barely evading the girl's flashing blades. He backpedalled and threw his kunai at the kunoichi to buy himself some time._

_The iwa-nin simply ducked under it, not losing speed, and got into blade range with Naruto again. She swiped her dual tanto at Naruto in an intricate pattern of cuts, stabs, and slashes. Kenjutsu wasn't Naruto's strong suit, and he was hard pressed to block or dodge all of her attacks. He was nicked in several places, but his flak jacket warded most of the damage off. The iwa-nin broke the rhythm of the fight by suddenly lashing out with a kick._

_Naruto got hit square in the chest, and flew back, the air knocked out of his lungs. The enemy ninja started flipping through hand seals._

_Alarm bells rang in Naruto's head when he recognized the snake and bird seals in the combination. He had to dodge it. Going up was out of the question, he'd be a sitting duck, so he poured chakra into his legs and jumped to the right._

_And not a second too soon, his opponent's __**Doton: Doryuusou**__ sent a row of rock spikes coming out of the ground toward Naruto._

_He managed to avoid being skewered- but it left him off balance. Naruto gritted his teeth as the enemy kunoichi closed in on him, bloodlust in her eyes. _

_Then the girl was knocked over with a pained yelp as a brace of shuriken thudded into her body. _

_Naruto turned his head to see Iruka, smiling reassuringly. Then the jounin turned back to his fight with an oto-nin._

_Naruto thanked kami for Iruka-taichou for watching out for him, and promised to treat his commander to ramen later- Iruka's appetite was nearly as great as Naruto's own._

_The iwa kunoichi got up with an angry growl, ripping out the bloodstained throwing stars embedded into her body._

_Naruto had to end this quickly while his opponent was off balance and he while he still held the advantage. With his empty right hand, he started forming one handed seals for a basic genjutsu behind his back. His proficiency with one handed seals wasn't good enough for anything else, but in this case, it would do._

_His plan set, the child chuunin dashed forward with a flourish of his blade, locking against the kunoichi's crossed guard. Naruto tried to sweep her feet out from under her, but she kicked forward with one leg and halted his momentum, then took one hand out of her guard and attempted to stab Naruto at the kidney level. Naruto stepped back quickly enough so that the tanto only grazed him, unable to penetrate his flak jacket._

_The iwa-nin rushed forward after him, and did a cross slash with both tanto. However, her attack fell short by a full two feet. Naruto's delayed action depth perception altering genjutsu had done its job. The genjutsu was very basic, and the nature of its delayed function made it easily detectable and nearly useless against any experienced enemy. But Naruto had noted that his opponent was young, genin probably from the lack of an iwagakure flak jacket, and inexperienced enough that his plan worked._

_The kunoichi had a flicker of confusion in her eyes, and then Naruto made a downward diagonal cut through her lowered guard. His slash hit her left shoulder, the chakra blade easily cleaving through her upper body and down, progressing to her right hip before losing enough force to be stopped by her pelvic bone. Naruto pulled his blood covered blade out with a slick, wet sound as the kunoichi fell backwards. _

_He stared into the dying kunoichi's panicked eyes, as she choked, unable to breathe. A few seconds later the light went out of her eyes. Naruto felt nothing but contentment, the satisfaction of a clean kill._

_The fight was still ongoing, so he turned to find a teammate to help._

_They were doing well, a few injuries but no losses so far, and ten of the enemy shinobi were dead. Victory seemed imminent. Then something strange started happening to one of the remaining enemies, a sound-nin. Dark lines flowed across his body, enveloping him in a sea of black._

"_Fuck! Curse seal!" Eagle warned._

_Naruto was confused, "A what seal?"_

_Nearby, Itachi answered while raising his ANBU issue sword, "Some sound shinobi have curse seals that greatly enhance their power, be careful Naruto."_

_The horns started to branch out of the sound-nin's head, and he gave off a chilling bestial roar before charging forward, shockingly fast, brandishing a sword._

_The leaf-nin closest to him, Uchiha Hikaru tried to block him, but the sound ninja was too fast. There was an indistinct blur of motion, then the leaf chuunin spun away with a shrill cry of pain, blood spraying as her right arm was cut off at the elbow._

_Mitarashi Anko growled angrily and ran forward, but in her haste to engage the curse seal wielder, she missed the __**other**__ remaining enemy shinobi. A barrage of kunai nearly ended her life, but Itachi had leapt in her way and skillfully deflected all the kunai aimed at her with his blade._

_The cursed seal oto-nin closed in on the distracted pair of konoha-nin by then. For once in his life, Itachi was too slow._

_But Naruto was close enough. He didn't think, he just reacted. He slid in between Itachi and the charging oto-nin. The strength of the curse seal powered ninja was immense, Naruto had raised his chakra blade in a guard position but the oto-nin's blow simply cut right through. It continued on, going into Naruto's flak jacket, the ceramic ballistic plates shattering, and then his body._

_Agony exploded in him, red spots filled his vision. The pain was so great that he swore his shoulder was screaming…no wait that was him._

"_Naruto!" Someone shouted. He couldn't make out the voice. His hearing was failing. He tried to turn around, but his body didn't move. His vision blurred, darkness crept from the corners of his view. _

"_Naruto!" The voice was even more indistinct this time. Naruto wanted to reassure whoever it was. He had been hit worse before, this…was…nothing…_

_But maybe he'd sleep a little first…_

OOOOOO

_8 years old:_

_Naruto's eyes sprung open to see the sun hanging high in the sky outside his window, bathing the white hospital room in a radiant golden light. He immediately turned away, irritating spots already forming in his vision from getting an eyeful of the bright star. _

"_Finally awake huh?" A feminine voice softly spoke, with a touch of humor. _

_Naruto turned his head to see Satomi, reclining in a chair next to his bed._

"_H-How long was I out?" He rasped. He tried to sit up, but his chest hurt._

_Satomi handed him a glass of water, "10 days. The doctors weren't sure if you were going to make it. We almost lost you when we were dragging you back to the forward fire base. Your chest got ripped open, one of your lungs collapsed, and your heart very nearly got nicked."_

_Naruto gave a start, 10 days… "The invasion?" he asked._

"_Going well." Satomi shook her head, "Don't you worry about that."_

_Naruto took a long breath, "What about Itachi? Is he ok?"_

_Satomi nodded, "He's fine. You saved his and Anko-senpai's lives. He nailed that curse seal shinobi with a Sharingan genjutsu after you got hit, guy went down like a sack of potatoes. Heck, even Hikaru's fine, the medics managed to reattach her limb."_

_To Naruto's surprise, the normally taciturn girl started crying. "Don't scare me like that ever again!" Satomi blubbered into his chest. He awkwardly tried to rub her back._

_Satomi sniffled, "We couldn't do anything, only you acted…"_

_Naruto disagreed, "My body moved on its own. And it was all happening too fast anyways."_

_He looked around, the place looked too well stocked for a rear line CSH._

"_Where are we?" He asked._

_Satomi smiled, "Konoha General Hospital."_

_Naruto stared at his teammate, "You mean-"_

"_Yup, welcome home."_

_Home. He hadn't been in Konohagakure for nearly 3 years. The closest he'd come was at the regional command headquarters at Tanzaku Castle, where he received his chuunin promotion and reassignment three months ago._

"_Itachi's here too, he wants to invite you to a dinner or something. I kind of want to bring you to the Hyuuga compound as well." Satomi said._

OOOOOO

_8 years old: two months later_

"_Hmph, we Uchiha live so clumped up together in this one area we might as well start calling this place the Uchiha District." A lanky boy with the distinctive Uchiha Clan features said. He was wearing the iconic dark blue Uchiha turtle neck shirt with the Clan symbol embroidered on the back._

"_No…Inabi and Aiko live over in the second residential sector, on Tobirama Boulevard remember Shisui? And what about the non-Uchiha that live around us?" A girl replied. She was tall and had creamy white skin, and dark Uchiha-style hair tied up in a ponytail. She was also in an Uchiha turtle neck._

_Shisui rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed, "Oh yeah, forgot about that Shiho, whoops." _

_Naruto turned to the pair, "Hey Shisui-san, am I doing this right?"_

"_Show me." The older boy asked._

_Naruto took a deep breath and channeled chakra around his entire body, vitalizing it in a specific pattern that Shisui had instructed him in. Then he disappeared in a puff of smoke only to reappear ten feet away. However, his image wavered and disappeared again. Naruto appeared back at his starting point, panting hard._

_Shiho gasped and Shisui started clapping, grinning broadly._

"_That was spot on, I'd say you've got the double shunshin technique down good. Hey, pretty soon, they're gonna call you Shunshin no Naruto!" Shisui smirked._

_Shiho looked at Shisui curiously, "I thought you said that you'd need a sharingan to do the technique properly."_

_Shisui shrugged, "I was lying to stop everyone from bugging me about it. You don't really need a sharingan to do it, all it takes is some careful chakra manipulation and voila! No more annoying half second after-cast after each shunshin. With enough chakra and concentration, you can essentially perform endless consecutive shunshins. It's still a poor man's substitute to the Fourth's Hiraishin though…"_

_Naruto sucked air in and out to get control of his breathing, "Hey Shisui, thanks again for teaching me your technique!"_

_Shisui shook his head, "It's the least I can do for you since you saved Itachi's ass." He then turned to face Shiho._

"_Speaking of Itachi's ass…I heard you two were together last night. Did you…you know…"_

_Shiho turned bright red, "Nothing happened, he just treated me to dinner…"_

_Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Itachi went on a date?"_

_Shisui chuckled, "I know right? Who would have thought, aloof Itachi…"_

"_He's not that bad. He's actually very personable." Shiho protested._

_Naruto nodded in playful agreement, "Yeah, I always said he's a big softie at heart."_

"_What was that fishcake-kun?" A monotone voice called out._

_The trio turned around to see Itachi ambling toward them, with an obviously Uchiha boy being carried on his back. Naruto scowled at the name._

_Itachi let the boy down. The boy was about as tall as Naruto was- which was to say that the two of them were the shortest in the group._

"_This is my little brother Sasuke, he's about a month older than you Naruto." Itachi introduced._

_Sasuke whipped around to face his brother, "This is who saved your life ni-san? But he's younger than me!"_

_Itachi nodded, "Yes, he's my teammate. He made chuunin some months ago."_

_Naruto observed Itachi's little brother. He was probably assigned to the home guard like half of the Uchiha Clan was. A good deal of the Uchiha Clan were out in the front fighting, but even understaffed, the Uchiha Konoha Military Police Force was still active and playing a last line of defense as well as weeding out spies and enemy agents._

"_But…I'm still in the academy…I bet I'd be a chuunin too if father and mother let me join the academy 3 years ago instead of last year…"_

_Itachi sighed, "Sasuke, 7 years old __**is**__ the standard wartime age for joining the academy. Father and mother had their reasons. Naruto's just…unique."_

_Sasuke stopped trying, although he was looking grumpy. Itachi smiled, "Now Sasuke, do you want to learn a technique? Naruto and the others and can help."_

_Sasuke's demeanor transitioned from sullen to excitement in an instant._

_Shisui mock whispered to Shiho, "We're only 'others', he says."_

OOOOOO

_8 years old:_

"_So Naruto-san, what do you want to do when the war is over? Do you have a goal you aspire to?" Hyuuga Hiashi asked._

_His twin brother Hizashi, identical except for the konoha hitai-ate covering his forehead turned to listen. Satomi, her older brother Neji, and Hiashi's eldest daughter and heir to the family Hinata also turned to listen. Hiashi's little 3 year old younger daughter Hanabi didn't seem to pay attention to the sudden change in focus of the rest of her family and continued picking at her food, pushing away bunches of parsley with a yuck face._

_Naruto gulped at all the sudden attention but gathered his courage and looked Hiashi straight in the eye. "Hiashi-sama, when the war is over, I'll continue on my road to become hokage. My goal is to protect all of konoha."_

_The room was completely silent at his declaration, save for small noises coming from Hanabi. For a moment, Naruto thought Hiashi was going to laugh._

_But instead, Hiashi simply smiled and nodded, "That is a good goal."_

_The rest of the kids smiled as well._

"_And I think you'll make it too, after all, with your pedigree…" Hiashi trailed off. _

_Naruto looked confused, Hizashi however, smirked._

"_My…what?" Naruto asked, not knowing the word._

"_Er, I mean your meteoric rise through the ranks at such a young age and excellent record. You have the makings of a superb shinobi of the leaf." Hiashi nodded sagely._

_This time Satomi frowned, that didn't seem like what her uncle was going to say at first._

"_So how did you come up with your goal Naruto-san?" Hizashi asked._

"_I want to become hokage because of the Fourth Hokage." Naruto answered. Hiashi made a small choking sound, but nobody noticed._

"_He's actually the reason I became a shinobi in the first place. When I was four years old, he visited me in the orphanage, right before the Counter-Offensive actually. He explained to me about the Will of Fire, and I told him that he was my hero and that I would become Hokage to protect everyone, and he believed that I could do it too." Naruto explained. "He said he would be waiting to put the hat on my head one day…" Naruto said with a wistful expression._

_There was a short silence._

"_Well, did you know that I was on the same genin team with the Fourth Hokage Naruto? Along with the current Uchiha Clan head too actually. Minato was a very good friend of mine." Hiashi began…_

OOOOOO

_9 years old:_

_Blood and bodies lay everywhere. As he stared at the lifeless faces, he screamed. They were all people he knew._

_Iruka-taichou, his chest caved in, bits of bone and gristle lying around him._

_Satomi-chan…her arms and legs had been torn off, and she was naked, her body bloodied and bruised, her face was contorted in silent anguish._

"_Naruto!" Someone called out. Naruto snapped his head away from the corpses of his teammates. He couldn't let them get to him, for there was still one other._

_Itachi was in his ANBU uniform, kneeling, bloodied and dirt caked, one arm limp and his weasel mask askew. He was helpless._

_A figure shrouded in the darkness approached, katana raised for a killing strike._

"_Damn it!" Naruto tried to step forward, but found he couldn't move. "What-" He stared down in horror, his legs were missing from the knee down, just a pair of bloody stumps. Without further ado, gravity took over and he dropped down on his stomach._

'_It should hurt…why doesn't it hurt?' Naruto thought in shock._

"_Naruto!" Itachi cried out again. The unknown executioner stepped closer._

"_I-Itachi!" Naruto shouted. He tried to crawl closer, but it was now that his legs started to hurt. It was a sudden burning sensation, and it distracted him well enough._

"_Naru-"Itachi's cry was cut off as the executioner decapitated the Uchiha with one clean stroke._

_The rolling head came to a stop just a few feet from Naruto's face. Naruto froze, stupefied. _

_Then, to his horror, Itachi's head opened its eyes, "Why didn't you save me?"_

_With an anguished cry, the illusion broke. _

_Naruto gasped and took a deep breath. He was stripped down to his underwear, once white, now soiled with urine and feces. His diminutive body was chained to a chair in the center of a windowless room with only a single dim flickering light bulb for illumination. Naruto heaved hard, his body racked with pain from beatings and pain serums. He felt like throwing up- but he had long vomited whatever was in his stomach, he had nothing left to hurl._

"_So, do you remember now Naruto-kun?" A flat, emotionless voice asked._

_Naruto slowly looked up, squinting at the figure, trying to see in the dim light._

_The man strode closer and grasped Naruto's chin. Directly under the light bulb, the man's iwagakure hitai-ate was prominently visible._

_Well, he definitely remembered the torture. The guy was good, that was probably the fifteenth or sixteenth time his interrogator had used that juiced up version of the hell-viewing technique, every time still felt like the first. Inventive nightmare genjutsu, psychological torture, phobias…the one that made him think he was being castrated by crawling insects still made him shiver. He had endured beatings, knives, needles, flechettes that gave small but sharply painful cuts for god knows how long._

"_Naruto, I am a man of peace." The man opened spread his arms as if to say he was harmless._

"_My people are enlightened, we don't want to hurt you. So please, just tell us one thing. What's this week's base entry codes?"_

_The question hung in the air._

_Naruto coughed and looked at the man in the eye. He saw only sadism in them, emotional nihilism. The man leaned closer, expectant._

_With some effort, Naruto managed to gather enough strength…and spat in the man's face. _

_The man looked impassive, even with a blood tinged wad of saliva dribbling down his left cheek._

_Naruto coughed again, and spoke in a hoarse voice, "U-Uzumaki…Naruto…Konoha Chuunin…Ninja registration ID number 012-" He was interrupted when he started a hacking cough again. His body convulsed, chest on fire, he coughed harder, and gagged. Something that tasted like copper was in his mouth. When his coughing subsided, he saw blood slowly drip from his mouth and chin down to a spot between his legs._

_Naruto suddenly grinned. The man raised an eyebrow._

"_I…I'd tell you…but…you see…I forgot. Sorry."_

_The man sighed, "Well, we'll just have to help you remem-"_

"_Alright Ibiki, that's enough, cut him loose." A gravelly voice came out of nowhere._

_Ibiki turned around to face what seemed to be a blank wall. "Well, I suppose I'm not getting anywhere anyways."_

"_He's still too young, any more and he might suffer permanent damage." The voice continued._

_Naruto looked around in confusion, what was going on?_

_The wall shimmered away to reveal the Sandaime Hokage, looking stern in his full Hokage ensemble._

"_He's passed the test anyways, it's good enough."_

_Ibiki looked back, taking off the iwagakure hitai-ate and replacing it with one that had a leaf symbol on it._

"_39 hours and 32 minutes. Very impressive kid. Alright, I think you make the cut."_

_A pair of medical corps ninja in white scrubs moved in and released Naruto's restraints. One of them gave Naruto an injection._

_Slowly, his mind grew less hazy. Ibiki had used a serum…something that made him think he was a captive of Iwagakure…_

"_You placed eighteenth on the list of longest time endured. Considering that I didn't pull any punches and the next seventeen in line are all way older than you, I think you did very impressive indeed. I bet you could have probably gotten an even better rank too if we kept going, wait until the guys around the base hear about this." Ibiki continued._

_Naruto tried to nod, but his neck hurt too much to move. Slowly, the voices became vague and indistinct. He was just so tired…_

_The Hokage went beside Naruto and clasped the boy's shoulder. "Welcome to ANBU…Platypus. I'm afraid that as a rookie, you're given one of the least desirable names. You'll get to pick another one later."_

"_Ok…jiji…" Naruto shut his eyes and darkness blissfully claimed him._

OOOOOO

_9 years old:_

"_Naruto-kun, hold still." The brown haired medic scolded, her hands glowing with luminous green medical chakra. The young woman had shoulder length hair, dark eyes, and a pair of distinctive purple cheek markings._

"_Aggggh, Rin-neechan, the war is over the moment I join ANBU. I didn't even get to go on a single mission!" Naruto moaned. _

_Rin shook her head in mirth, "You've already fought plenty even before you joined ANBU, and even with the war over, ANBU still has work to do." The glow of her medical jutsu faded, "There, you're good to go, now no strenuous training or activity with that shoulder for the next two days alright?"_

_Naruto nodded vigorously, "So Rin-neechan, when do you think Kakashi-taichou's going to proposition you?"_

_The ANBU medic blushed, "W-Where did that come from? We're not together Naruto, we're just…friends."_

_Naruto rolled his eyes, "Yeah...'friends'." he said, making air quotes. ANBU Captain Hatake Kakashi's relationship with Rin was notoriously well known. They seemed to forget that this was ANBU, and people could be discreet enough to not be noticed whenever Kakashi and Rin embraced or something. Naruto had it on good authority that Kakashi and Rin had exited a supply room together looking quite flustered and disheveled after spending at least an hour inside yesterday._

_Rin sighed, and had a sudden smile, "So what about you Naruto? I heard that your old teammate Hyuuga Satomi expressed interest in joining ANBU as well. I guess with two of her closest friends both in here now, she must be feeling left behind."_

"_Eh, Satomi-chan?"_

"_Yup, and get this, I heard that recruitment has already started evaluating her." Rin grinned._

_Naruto became silent, looking deep in thought. Rin's grin dropped, "Er, you two could be together again soon!"_

_Naruto nodded distractedly, "I know, I'm just not sure whether I like the idea of her going through all that conditioning and SERE training."_

_Rin wanted to facepalm, her idea had backfired on her._

OOOOOO

_10 years old:_

_The group of konoha ANBU hopped from tree to tree at breakneck speeds._

"_We're coming up on it now, watch out for traps." Dog said. He had silver hair and a captain's uniform. The rest of his team silently acknowledged._

_Weasel, also now sporting a captain's uniform glanced behind him for a second, "Stay close Maelstrom, we'll be entering through the west side."_

_Naruto grinned behind his mask, at least Itachi called him by his __**real**__ name in the field instead of that fishcake crap. "Roger captain." Turning to look behind him, "You hear that roots? follow the captain."_

"_Of course fishcake-fukutaichou." A gray haired boy deadpanned._

_Naruto glared, although it couldn't be seen under his mask. _

"_Please call Maelstrom by his codename Shin." Itachi asked, not bothering to look back again._

"_Of course, of course, sorry taichou." Shin replied. _

_A brown haired girl came up beside him and smacked him in the shoulder. "Yeah baka! We're on a mission here!"_

_Their group dropped down from the trees and into a rocky area._

"_The hidden entrance should be just up ahead. Tekko." Itachi stated, the last word with a gesture._

_Tekko was a dark haired teen, the group's explosives expert. He came forward and slapped a single seal onto a rock face. The team huddled against the rock on either side of the tag._

_Itachi nodded, and Tekko made a single hand seal. The tag lighted, and then the rock face caved in, the directional explosive tag detonating inward, leaving the ANBU team unscathed._

_The team rushed in, Itachi in the lead._

"_So Shin, how does it feel to be out of the terminal stage?" Naruto asked._

"_I'm relieved, Tsunade-sama is very skilled, I'm glad I have some more time to spend with Sai, fukutaichou." The boy in question replied._

"_Tachi" Itachi said, talking to the brown haired girl, "Take Tekko and Sarujin and search down that hallway. Maelstrom, Shin, come with me."_

_Each member silently acknowledged Itachi, and the two groups of three separated down the T-intersection._

_Each of Orochimaru's bases had exactly the same décor, drab sandstone. Even years after his death, and after the war had officially ended, they were still stuck clearing his bases and outposts out of Rice Country._

"_Careful, we've got enemies ahead of us." Itachi cautioned._

_Up ahead, indistinct silhouettes moved around. They resolved into misshapen forms, what were once human beings mated grotesquely with claws, protrusions, extra limbs, all made to serve the deceased otokage's orders._

"_Damn chimeras." Naruto cursed. Itachi fired off a weakened __**Goukakyuu**__ fireball as not to damage the corridor structure._

_Naruto also flipped through hand seals quickly and fired off his own complement technique._

_**Fuuton: Kazekiri no jutsu!**_

_A blade of wind sliced through all the chimeras, dicing them into body parts._

"_Nice shot!" Shin said._

_They continued down the corridor, past the dead chimera guards._

_Minutes later, they entered a large room, big enough to fit several hundred people. There were second story rails in the room. The other ANBU teams were already waiting there, Dog and his team, Tachi, Tekko, Sarujin, and a Boar masked ANBU captain as well._

"_Well, I guess intel got it right for once, there's barely anyone left in this one." Shin said._

_Dog nodded, "Plant the explosives, the sooner we can get out of here…"_

_A loud bestial roar coming from outside the room interrupted him._

"_What was that?" Someone asked._

"_Trouble." Boar growled._

_The wall blew in, boulder sized chunks of rock narrowly missing some of the ANBU members. A shirtless giant of a man, easily 3 meters tall and with bulging muscles roared, stepping in. His body was bright orange colored, and he had an almost hunchbacked posture. Naruto immediately recognized the signs of a Curse Seal stage 2 user._

_The man charged, Tachi's team was closest to the wall and they were knocked away with cries of pain. Immediately the rest of the ANBU threw a barrage of kunai, shuriken, and other projectile weapons. They all bounced off the man's rock hard skin._

"_Tenzo, now!" Dog cried. _

"_Right Taichou!" The ANBU operative in question said._

_Tenzo rushed forward, hands forming rapid seals. __**Mokuton: Mokusatsu Shibari no jutsu!**_

_Tendrils of wood shot out of his arms to entangle and restrain the curse seal user. The berserk man roared and tried to break free, but the tendrils held tight._

_Itachi turned to Naruto, "Maelstrom!"_

"_Right!" Naruto said. Time to use his new original technique._

_With both hands locked together, he channeled a ball of wind chakra into his grip. With careful concentration and force, he compressed the ball tightly, until it was no bigger than a tennis ball. Then, with a burst of wind, he shot it at the entrapped enemy._

_**Fuuton: Kaze Suto Kyanon!**_

_The ball rapidly reached the enemy and explosively decompressed from the lack of Naruto's compression waves. A small vortex of extremely sharp cutting winds detonated outwards and completely shredded the man, painting the floor and nearby walls a vivid red._

_Dog whistled, impressed. Tenzo just shook his head, chuckling, "I guess that's why they call you Maelstrom."_

_The others helped Tachi's team back up. Naruto panted hard, that technique always took a lot out of him. "Let's just plant the damn explosives and get out of here before we have any more surprises."_

_Dog nodded, "That's command thinking. Besides, I've got a date to get to."_

_Everyone else stared at him in shock, Dog looked around, "What? I know we were pretty obvious."_

"_Wow, he's finally owning up to it." Boar said._

OOOOOO

_11 years old:_

"_Well Naruto, you have an excellent record in ANBU. I formally accept your retirement from black ops, and promote you to tokubetsu jounin. Congratulations." The old man said._

_Naruto nodded, "Thank you Hokage-sama."_

_The old leader lit a wooden pipe and began smoking it._

"_So Naruto, what do you want to do now?"_

"_I guess I'll start helping out in the reconstruction effort. I have to continue on my road to become Hokage right oji-san?" Naruto grinned._

_Sarutobi Hiruzen chuckled, "Well, I'll be waiting to hand this hat over then Naruto."_

_The two sat in companionable silence for a while, both lost in memories._

_The interlude was broken however, when the door opened and a small boy rushed in._

"_Fight me old geezer!" The boy shouted. Naruto managed to not react, were he not familiar with the Hokage's 7 year old grandson's antics, things may have ended violently…for the grandson._

_The boy promptly tripped over his own overly long scarf. "Owww!" he wailed._

_The Hokage sighed, "Not again Konohamaru…"_

_A man in a konoha uniform without the flak jacket rushed in, nearly tripping over Konohamaru's fallen form in his haste. He wore his hitai-ate in the bandana form and pushed up a pair of sunglasses. "Honored grandson! Are you alright?"_

"_Aggh, alright, who set a trap? Was it you?" Konohamaru yelled, pointing at Naruto with one hand, the other massaging his bruised forehead._

"_For the record, there is no trap here, and that's Naruto-san, a capable chuunin of Konoha!" The man stated._

_The Hokage interrupted, "Actually Ebisu, Naruto has just been promoted to tokubetsu jounin."_

_The man looked surprised, "Oh? Congratulations are in order then Naruto-san."_

_Naruto nodded, "Thank you Ebisu-senpai." Despite the man's appearance, Naruto knew Ebisu to be a deadly shinobi, having fought alongside him on a number of occasions._

_The Hokage sighed again, "Alright Naruto, you may go."_

_Naruto nodded and disappeared with a puff of smoke._

OOOOOO

_12 years old:_

_Naruto looked at the memorial stone somberly, tracing each name with his fingers while reciting them. Well, it was more of a memorial __**wall**__. The Fourth Great Shinobi War (Although Naruto thought they should strike the word Shinobi from it as plenty of samurai and normal warriors had fought as well) had claimed an entire generation of lives. What remained were hardened veterans like him, knowing nothing but how to fight._

_Nanahara Satoshi_

_Kasai Reiji_

_Shibaki Yui_

_Many of his friends were on the wall._

_Nara Shikamaru_

_Akimichi Chouji_

_Yamanaka Ino_

_Many more his age that he had only known in passing had perished as well._

_Naruto sighed, after all that had happened though, there were some bright spots. His old platoon leader Touji Mizuki was getting married to the love of his life, Tsubaki. She was a kind woman, and Naruto thought the two were made for each other. Kakashi and Rin were getting married as well._

'_About time' Naruto thought._

_Shisui had also hinted that Itachi and Shiho were getting more serious about their relationship. Naruto was happy for them, Itachi had known nothing but war, Naruto knew now that Itachi hated war and would try to avoid it at any cost. He deserved to have some peace in his life. Thinking about it, he was glad he had such good friends and that both Itachi and Satomi survived so many years of war with the odds stacked against them.  
_

_And himself…Satomi-chan was still in ANBU. He heard from his old contacts in the division that she was in line for a captaincy. He still saw her on occasion when he visited the Hyuuga compound though, Hiashi and Hizashi both treated him like a son these days._

_Maybe he would go visit Sasuke? Itachi was busy enough with ANBU work, and was rumored to be on the fast track to becoming the ANBU Commander with Kakashi deciding to retire. Thinking about Kakashi, the man had said he was thinking about taking a genin team._

_Maybe he should get a genin team as well, the Hokage had hinted that Naruto was a candidate, and the position would give him full jounin status and relatively relaxing work…_

_With a puff of smoke, Naruto disappeared into a shunshin._

_The Hokage's office was sealed against direct shunshin access, but those with A-level Konoha Security Clearance could bypass the rest of the tower's security and enter directly into the Office's lobby, which was practically right outside anyways. A-level clearance was granted only to full jounin or experienced ANBU operatives, the latter being the way Naruto got his._

_He mentally keyed in the correct authorization seals in mid-shunshin and successfully entered the lobby._

_A pair of ANBU operatives, Crane and Panda acknowledged him. He had served with both of them before during his stint with ANBU._

"_Uzumaki-san? Here to see the Hokage?" The secretary asked. He was a frequent visitor, and the woman behind the receptionist desk smiled warmly._

_Naruto nodded._

"_Hokage-sama! Uzumaki Naruto is here to see you!" The secretary called out._

_A little muffled behind the door, the Hokage's voice replied, "Come in!"_

_After shutting the door behind him, Naruto went and sat down in a chair, "Hi jiji." He greeted. The Hokage had always been like a surrogate grandfather to him._

"_Naruto, what can I do for you? I must thank you for distracting me from my paperwork."_

"_Ah, Hokage-sama, I would like to take a genin team."_

_The Hokage pulled out his signature smoking pipe, lit it and took a puff. "Well Naruto, I think you're ready. There's going to be a new class of academy students graduating soon that haven't seen the horrors of war. I think your experience would let you be a good leader and a great teacher."_

"_Thank you Hokage-sama." Naruto nodded._

_The Hokage looked grave all of a sudden. "There's actually another thing. I promised Minato to tell you this when you either made jounin or turned 16."_

_The Hokage's voice inexplicably started getting drowned out. "It's very important Naruto…"_

_There was a lot of white noise, and Naruto started feeling…drowsy._

"_Naruto…"_

_Huh?_

"_Naruto…"_

"_Hokage-sama?" Naruto tried to say. His mouth wouldn't move._

"_Naruto, wake the hell up!"_

_Everything went white._

OOOOOO

Now:

And that's where the memory ended.

Yamanaka Inoichi sat back, tears already rolling down his face. Uzumaki Naruto had consented to a full mind interrogation. It was a very intimate thing, and Naruto had stressed that he knew what he was getting into, that he was voluntarily letting Inoichi into the deepest part of his mind, to look into his soul, his consciousness, everything.

And Inoichi felt everything, every memory, all the sights, sensations, emotions, the mental aspects- A full mind interrogation would completely immerse his consciousness into the one being interrogated. It would have been _mind rape_ had Naruto not consented, and even then…

For the last 12 hours, Inoichi had been one with Naruto, living through all his memories, even the most intimate and private ones, everything had been laid bare. As an observer, he had seen everything, uncovered secrets beyond belief. Naruto's happiness was his happiness, Naruto's pain his pain. He had felt his own pain when he saw what could have been…and everything else.

He was exhausted, from both the revelations and the effort. They were in the ANBU infirmary, the same one Naruto had been so well acquainted with having spent a full month of recovery time after his ANBU SERE conditioning.

Naruto opened his eyes unsteadily. Inoichi embraced Naruto and wept.

"Naruto…Naruto…I'm so sorry…but…it was only a dream."

OOOOOO

Jutsu List:

1. **Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu** – Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique: C-rank, a fireball or a continuous flamethrower is expelled from the mouth and can incinerate even metal.

2. **Fuuton: Daitoppa** – Wind Release: Great Breakthrough: C-rank, a great rush of wind is summoned and hits with tremendous force.

3. **Doton: Doryuusou** – Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears: C-rank, spears made of rock, hardened mud, or dirt rise out of the ground to impale enemies.

4. **Fuuton: Kazekiri no Jutsu** – Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique: C-rank, summons a piercing blade of wind that can cut through armor and bodies alike with ease.

5. **Mokuton: Mokusatsu Shibari no Jutsu** – Wood Release: Smothering Binding Technique: B-rank, the user's arm is transformed into nearly indestructible chakra coated tendrils of wood which can be used to capture and restrain an enemy.

6. **Fuuton: Kaze Suto Kyanon** – Wind Release: Wind Blast Cannon: B-rank, a ball of wind chakra is highly compressed and fired at an enemy. The ball would explosively decompress a certain distance away with devastating results. Created by Uzumaki Naruto

OOOOOO

A/N: I think this is the longest chapter I've written in all my stories so far. The memory sequence wasn't supposed to be so long, but the words just flowed. I liked writing about the dream world so much that I'm considering writing a prequel on it. Maybe… What do you guys think?

Writing the memories in only italics was probably a bit confusing, sorry; I'll change it up in the following chapters. If you're wondering about all the discrepancies in the memories, it'll be explained in the next chapter.

The ANBU torture conditioning scene was hugely inspired from the fic "People Lie" by Nugar. It's an incredibly well written AU Naruto with a great deal of psychology involved. I highly recommend reading his story. The chapter in question is 23.


	3. Sitting up

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, I do own any original characters and the story itself.**

**General Warning: **I think you guys get the idea by now. But just a fair warning, this story contains tons of spoilers for the series and I assume readers are pretty current with the manga or anime at least.

**Author's Note: **Admittedly, I didn't plan much past the kicker, I'm just making up things as I go along and hoping it works. But on the other hand, I think the dream part of my story is rather unique? Warning in advance, while initially, I'll follow the stations of canon, the train will quickly become derailed due to the chaos butterflies of a completely different Naruto. Also, I'm thinking of changing the story title to **Naruto: Awakening**, and using the current title as a prequel. Would anyone be interested in reading a more in-depth story of Naruto's Dream?

"…" Speech

'…' Thoughts

OOOOOO

A silver haired man in a Konoha-nin's jounin uniform sat on the windowsill of one Uzumaki Naruto's apartment. He wore a mask covering up the lower half of his face and a slanted hitai-ate covering up one eye. He stared at the apartment's sole occupant, a blond boy who was reclining on a couch, just staring up in space, waiting for the boy to notice his presence.

Hatake Kakashi had undergone more dramatic life changes in his short life so far than most people would encounter in their whole lives. He had always been praised as a prodigy in the shinobi arts. He had joined Konoha's Shinobi Academy at the astonishing age of 4 and had graduated within a year, before taking merely another year to achieve the rank of chuunin, an accomplishment most peers triple his age didn't have. As such, he had a ton of pressure and many expectations on him for his age, but he worked hard at it.

He always looked up to his father, Hatake Sakumo, known as "Konoha's White Fang", who was one of the strongest shinobi in the world of his time. Kakashi had aspired to be just like his father…until one day; Sakumo forfeited the success of a mission in exchange for saving his comrades. Hatake Sakumo was shunned and reviled for his decision- so much that he committed suicide, leaving Kakashi, at 8 years old, badly traumatized, who then decided that following the rules above all else, even teammates and friends, no matter the consequences was best. It wasn't until he was 13 when he was a jounin that a teammate showed him that teammates should come before the mission that Kakashi saw the light. Unfortunately, this revelation came at the cost of that teammate and friend's life, Uchiha Obito. He had had his second major life change. He managed to live on, now with a much more cheerful and happier outlook on life, because of the comforting presences of his sensei, the future Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato and his teammate and close friend Rin. Then, not even a year after he managed to get on the right road on life, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox took it all away from him. On that night, Konoha burned, and hundreds of shinobi fell in battle against the Demon Fox. Among the dead were his beloved sensei, the Fourth Hokage who was practically a surrogate father to him, and Rin, a good friend whom he had just admitted to having loved. A person can only take so much before breaking. And Kakashi, after the death of virtually everyone he admired and cherished, one right after the other, had one foot over the edge. Only one thing stopped him. Responsibility. His sensei had left a son, whom he had sealed the Demon Fox into. Uzumaki Naruto had many things in life stacked against him. His parents, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina were killed the night he was born, leaving him orphaned. A good deal of Konoha's citizens came to see Naruto as the sealed Demon Fox itself in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, blaming him for the death of his parents and many of Konohagakure's populace. Furthermore, Naruto's true parentage could not be safely revealed. The Fourth Hokage had made many enemies in his life, and Konoha's leadership decided to hide the identities of Naruto's parents, leaving him only with his mother's surname, an identity unknown to the population at large.

Hatake Kakashi joined Konoha's ANBU as his way of coping with all the pain and loss he was dealing with at the time. During his service, he had personally fended off several assassination attempts on young Naruto's life from disgruntled citizens. Naruto grew up alone, with no friends his age, and was discriminated against by much of Konohagakure's residents. But despite that, Naruto was safe- no one had managed to harm him under the watchful eye of Konoha's elite ANBU. And despite the loneliness, Naruto didn't let it get to him and found his own ways of coping. And thus, Kakashi still had a reason to live for.

Then, just days ago, something had happened to Naruto, a life changing event of his own. Kakashi had been present to help his sensei's son in any way he could when Yamanaka Inoichi delved into Naruto's mind. Somehow, Naruto had gotten a better life. He had close friends, respect, and happiness. Then it was all cruelly ripped away from him.

Now, Kakashi had been ordered to take Naruto to the Hokage's office. But he just sat at Naruto's window, unsure of what to do. Talking to and cheering up people wasn't his strong suit, maybe he would procrastinate for a few hours, everyone already always expected him to be late.

As Kakashi looked into Naruto's blank eyes, he realized that he saw in the boy what he had been like at that age, just immediately after the Kyuubi's attack. Just like him, Naruto had now lost the closest things to him in his life. But unlike him, Kakashi didn't know if Naruto had anything left, one last thread to hang on to.

OOOOOO

Sarutobi Hiruzen was starting to feel all of his sixty eight years of age this day. "Alright Inoichi, can you run that dream world theory by me again?" He asked.

Yamanaka Inoichi was a blond haired man in his late thirties and had a distinctively long ponytail, a traditional style of both men and women of his clan. "Like I said Hokage-sama, it's complicated." He sighed; the effort it took to sift through Uzumaki Naruto's mind was both mentally and emotionally exhausting, he still wasn't fully recovered after his experience.

The Yamanaka Clan was famous for their mind arts, reading the minds of people, switching bodies with them, there was a lot of mystery and intrigue surrounding the clan because of their art. Yamanaka Inoichi had been put in charge of Naruto's case because he was the best mind interrogator in Konoha, and as a jounin and top ranking member of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Force, he had experience in hundreds of cases. But this one took the cake.

"I know what happened, I saw the memories too, but what I want to know is _how _it happened." The third Hokage said. Inoichi had used a Yamanaka memory transfer technique to show the Hokage his experiences in Naruto's mind. Needless to say, it had been quite taxing for the aged shinobi leader as well.

"Right, our best theory is the Dream World Theory, written by Uchiha Madara several decades ago, back in the age of the Shodaime Hokage. He postulated that with enough chakra, anything was possible. In the case he was talking about, dreams could become real. Now, we're still missing a lot of details and context, he made a ton of confusing references to the Sharingan's abilities, especially to that mysterious upper stage of the Sharingan he was said to have, but essentially, the dream combined with the chakra can create a pocket reality where a person's mind can go to." Inoichi began.

The Hokage nodded understandingly, "Go on, I'm with you so far."

Inoichi took a breath, "Now we still don't know the _why_ about this, but what we know is that Naruto fell asleep at approximately 24 minutes into class time, as witnessed by Hyuuga Hinata and Nara Shikamaru, the latter whom incidentally fell asleep a minute later. The teacher, Umino Iruka-" Memories of an unscarred jounin commander talking and laughing flashed through Inoichi's mind. He grimaced, with a full mind immersion, residual memories lingered in the interrogator's, making it quite confusing for him. He still had inexplicable senses of déjà vu and mirror perceptions of people he knew that were different in Naruto's memories.

"Sorry, anyways, the teacher Umino Iruka noticed Naruto napping and woke him up approximately 33 minutes into the class, so Naruto had been asleep for roughly less than 10 minutes. Sometime during those ten minutes, we believe he unconsciously drew upon the chakra of the nine tailed demon fox somehow, enough chakra to create a pocket reality for a few minutes. A few minutes of time in real life translated to 12 years in the dream world, coincidentally about the same time that passed in Naruto's real life so far."

The Hokage felt a stab of fear, "What about the seal?"

Inoichi shook his head, "The seal is intact, we're still not sure on the mechanics of how the chakra was drawn but the seal handled it safely."

"Even for less than ten minutes in real time, a monstrous amount of chakra would have been drawn." The Hokage stated.

"Yes, enough chakra that an omniscient replica of our world was created, perfect down to the last detail…enough chakra that **life** was actually created. Everything was replicated perfectly down to everyone's different personalities, behavior, physical and even mental changes, it's as if Naruto made a shadow clone of sorts of our entire world." Inoichi stressed.

The Hokage lit the pipe he always kept in his pocket and took a puff, "I had always wondered what would've happened had the Kyuubi never attacked Konoha…"

"And now we know, because the one factor missing in the dream world was that the Kyuubi no Yoko never attacked."

The Hokage looked thoughtful, "Another piece of proof for the dream world theory. The world was replicated well enough that even the details of Naruto's parents existed. Ah yes, also, since you now know, the details of Naruto's parentage are also classified as an S-class secret."

Inoichi nodded, "Of course Hokage-sama. I suppose it's a blessing that Naruto himself has little to no recollection of his toddler years when he was exposed to so many secrets."

The Hokage sighed, leaning back in his office chair, "But even without the Kyuubi, Naruto still lost his parents before he was old enough to really know them anyways. That assassination attempt that claimed Kushina's life when he was 3 and sent him into hiding…Minato dying against Orochimaru less than 2 years later…it's all just so…sad."

"But still, many other things changed. Hizashi's wife didn't die in the Kyuubi attack and she bore him another child. Hizashi himself survived because Kumogakure didn't make any overtures of friendship towards us with the war going on. Heck, somehow, Itachi didn't betray his clan! …Was it because he met Naruto?" Inoichi mused.

Hiruzen felt his gut clench, it pretty much confirmed it, the lack of an Uchiha Clan uprising because of a lack of prejudice against them that rose up after the Kyuubi attack. The rest of Konoha had suspected that the Uchiha Clan had a hand in the attack, which was utter nonsense, as nearly a fifth of the clan had perished helping defend Konohagakure. Out loud though, he just sighed, "Maybe. Naruto is the number one most unpredictable ninja of Konohagakure after all."

"The ripples are endless; Kakashi didn't become crazy depressed, even though his sensei died, he still had his one surviving teammate…" Inoichi felt like he could go on and on.

"Speaking of which, how much did you show him?" The Hokage asked, as the thought occurred to him.

"Just the parts relevant to him, I didn't want to just bandy Naruto's life around."

Inoichi paused for a moment, thinking back to Kakashi's reaction, "I think…I think Kakashi was actually crying afterwards."

"I suspect it was seeing himself with Rin." The Hokage mused.

"Probably…"

"How is Naruto taking it? I'm going to speak with him as soon as Kakashi gets here." The Hokage asked, sitting back up from his reclined position.

Inoichi froze for a second, then sighed, shaking his head slightly, "Not good…We explained the theory to him. It was essentially telling him that the life he lived, the people he knew all weren't truly real. We're not completely sure as this is all theoretical, but with the chakra connection cut off, his dream world has likely ceased to exist. Furthermore, he asked about current events, about the counterparts of people he knew. In hindsight, it was a bad idea to immediately oblige him with his psyche so fragile…"

The Hokage nodded, sadly understanding. "Hizashi gone and therefore Hyuuga Satomi never having existed. His other teammate Uchiha Itachi becoming an S-Class missing nin after massacring his clan, including the counterparts of a number of Naruto's close friends. Hiashi-san himself is vitally different in mind and personality without the presence of his brother. Practically all of his closest friends are gone. Here, there are whole generations of kids that died in the dream world, all strangers to him right now. And…Naruto was just a normal orphan in that world in most people's eyes. He wasn't hated without any reason by Konohagakure, he was a respected member of the village, here though…"

There was a pregnant silence as the Hokage trailed off. Nothing further was needed, both men knew just how badly Naruto was treated by Konoha's populace, not to mention the number of assassination attempts that they thankfully managed to prevent.

The Hokage growled, "I still can't believe my counterpart actually approved of Naruto being sent into battle years under even the standard minimum age!"

"Times were different in that world I suppose. As I understand it, we were getting desperate, practically half our forces were kids. Naruto's entire generation was drafted."

The two men sat in silence for a time, contemplating on what could have been…

The Hokage broke the silence first, "How is his mental state then Inoichi?"

"His dream world personality is dominant now. His previous personality is still there, but it's been a confusing time for him, the two sets of memories are merging, and he's having trouble separating the two sets. It's like this, as I understand it, when he sees Umino Iruka for example, he sees a mirror image of the Iruka of the dream world imperfectly superimposed on the real Iruka. It's the same for many of the people who look radically different here compared to the dream world. Likewise, he's having a hard time remembering which memories belong in which world. Already, he's stumbled over some things that are different in his world."

"Such as?"

"…Such as the fact that my daughter, along with close to 90% of soldiers his age died during the Fourth Great Shinobi War in the dream world." A brief image of his daughter, Ino's name on the memorial wall for Konoha's shinobi killed in action appeared, as well as a stab of pain. Inoichi shook it off, the memory felt so real, that one part of his brain that told him that it was concrete truth- but Inoichi knew it wasn't, that the feeling was just another residual effect of the mind interrogation, unlike Naruto, he had a solid anchor to reality...but even that was barely enough.

There was a short awkward silence as the Hokage waited, letting Inoichi gather his thoughts.

Inoichi continued his explanation, "On a side note, Naruto took the revelation that he's the jinchuuriki for the Nine-Tailed Bijuu well. The only gripe he has about it is that his chakra control is totally shot, he had a regular human's chakra pool in the dream world, now, he has to retrain himself to use a pool that's been highly boosted by the Kyuubi's chakra. There is a silver lining though, once he does get back up to speed, his tactical options will grow tenfold. He'd be a monster on the battlefield."

"Yes, well, on that note, he's retained all his experiences, memories, strategies, and techniques. The dream world was so realistic that even the security seals and pass codes I chose were identical for years. He was a failing academy student not two days ago. Now, he has the mind and experience of a war veteran, ANBU Black Ops veteran, and if I understood correctly right before he woke up, the makings of a jounin sensei, all with the actual security access to boot." The Hokage added.

"Yes Hokage-sama…He knows the doctrine and has experience in virtually every type of mission, from search and destroy to target capture. While his physical capacity hasn't transferred over, that's relatively easy to rectify. A few weeks of therapy and hard training and he would be back up to his old standards. It seems that physically, his body developed similarly in the dream world as well, something we believe to be a deliberate feature of the Dream World. His mental capacities have all transferred over, he has the speed and reflexes of a jounin, the skills, everything. He's definitely no academy student anymore." Inoichi replied.

"I will grant him provisional tokubetsu jounin rank then, he deserves that at least. With his psyche as it is…I think I'll put off making him a jounin sensei for now. And his mission record in the dream world?" The Hokage asked. Despite having the full memories of Naruto's dream world, he didn't remember _everything_, there was a lot of things to go over after all. Inoichi on the other hand, having for all intent and purpose _become _Naruto during that mind walk…

"He had 413 official missions finished. 3 D-Rank, 42 C-Rank, 316 B-Rank, 50 A-Rank, and 2 S-Rank. Under the wartime constitution, most skirmishes and battles counted as B and A level missions. As a result, his mission history is rather top heavy."

"We're going to have to meet the council later over this. Now what is taking Kakashi so long? You'd think with the seriousness of the situation, he'd forgo his usual tardiness…" The Hokage grumbled.

"It's Kakashi Hokage-sama."

OOOOOO

He didn't know what to feel now. Earlier he had a whirlpool of emotions. Everything from denial, anger, sadness, and finally acceptance… Now, he just felt hollow.

Now that he remembered his life in this world, albeit faintly, he realized that despite the pain and loss from the Fourth Great Shinobi War, this life was far worse. Here, he never had anything to lose to begin with, no real friends, and few valued people, no purpose beyond trying to become Hokage, and even then, with a naïve attempt at doing so.

Naruto stared blankly at the ceiling in his apartment. Tears glistened on his face. His thoughts turned to his friends. Satomi, who had never even existed in this life because her mother was killed during the night the Nine Tailed Fox attacked, and her father later on giving his life to protect his brother from Kumogakure. Inoichi had explained that it was highly likely that when he woke up, his dream world was annihilated. Hyuuga Satomi had in essence, died. She didn't even have a soul for the afterlife to take. Everyone in his world was gone.

Shisui, Shiho, Fugaku and Mikoto, in this world had all been killed by Itachi. Uchiha Itachi, one of his best friends had killed off his entire clan save his little brother Sasuke, in the process turning into an S-Rank missing nin. That was the one part he could not accept. It just wasn't possible. Itachi had abhorred killing and war, long since before he had even met Naruto. What could have driven Itachi to such lengths?

There was one explanation that Naruto found possible. As Inoichi had explained it, the one single factor that differentiated this world from his dream world was the attack of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox. Was it possible that this difference had turned his kind, pacifist best friend Itachi into an insane cold-blooded murderer? The idea hurt too much to even dwell upon. Naruto tried his best to compartmentalize it, a skill he had made use of to cope with the Fourth Great War.

'_The Nine Tailed Demon Fox'_ He thought next.

The difference between the two worlds was that in this world, the _real world_, the Fox had attacked Konohagakure. The Fourth Hokage, his beloved hero figure Namikaze Minato had chosen him as a newborn baby to seal the fox into. His parents had died in this world too. In both worlds, he was deprived of a chance to really know them.

He remembered his first meeting with the Demon Fox, by Inoichi's side as the Yamanaka was examining and explaining the seal to him...

OOOOOO

_The two stared at the gigantic cage with a paper containing the word "seal" slapped on it. This was Naruto's mental representation of the prison that trapped the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox inside Naruto.  
_

"_So…that's where the Kyuubi is trapped?" Naruto asked hesitantly._

_Inoichi nodded affirmatively, "The mental representation of it yes. The real power is in that piece of paper, that one is immutable to mental change. It __**can**__ be removed in here, so be careful, but as long as that seal stays on, the Fox is trapped. Now the cage on the other hand, is the mental representation of your will to keep the Fox trapped in this part of your mind. The cage itself can be reshaped by your mind." He explained._

_There was a sudden wave of oppressive chakra. It was worse than any aura Naruto had ever seen exuded. He gave a shuddering gasp as…__**something**__ appeared behind the bars of the cage. It was enormous, a malevolent looking face taking up Naruto's entire vision. Prominent were two huge demonic red eyes gazing intently at them and two rows of huge teeth closed in a twisted grin._

"_**So, the fool finally returns!"**__ It snarled more than said._

_Inoichi grimaced while Naruto jumped back in surprise._

"_You…You're the Kyuubi!" Naruto exclaimed in surprise._

"_**Yes fool."**_

"_Wha…fool?" Naruto asked. Inoichi observed, stepping out of the way. The Kyuubi didn't seem to pay even an iota of attention to the Yamanaka._

"_**You are an utter fool for drawing on my chakra like that! Do you know how CLOSE you came to dying innumerable times in that forsaken dream world you created!?" **__The Kyuubi roared._

"_Er…" Naruto glanced at Inoichi, but the older man shrugged, not taking his eyes off the Kyuubi no Yoko._

"_**Fool you are, even you should've noticed that you weren't healing like usual in that dream of yours!"**_

_Naruto was struck dumb. With all that had been going on, he hadn't thought about it. But now that he recalled, he had always healed fast. Once when he was 9, he had slipped off a roof while running from shinobi pursuers after a prank. He had been injured badly, at first he didn't know what to do, but the pain went away within a day. Now, with his extensive experience, he figured he had broken his leg back then. But in the dream world… _

"_That's…that's right, so all those times, it was you who was healing me?" Naruto asked._

"_**Correct, and during that dream world, you diverted my chakra into maintaining that world instead of your body! If you had died in that world, you would have died in the real world as well!"**_

_Inoichi drew in a sharp breath of realization, "Brain death. Your mind inhabited the dream world, if you died, your real body would've become brain dead and would have shut down…"_

_Naruto looked wistful, "I wouldn't have minded dying if it had protected Konohagakure…"_

_Inoichi glanced at Naruto at the boy's response, strangely looking crestfallen._

* * *

_The two walked away from the chamber, glad to be away from the cage containing the Kyuubi. It was odd, but even though he had no concrete idea of how to navigate this part of his mind- which appeared to be a dark and damp sewer with knee high murky water, he could unconsciously find his way simply by thinking of "leaving."_

_The two finally reached an exit, finding a calm meadow with a large beautifully carved stone wall stretching across the entire lakeside, inscribed with thousands of names taking up the center. Past that was a lake that went as far as the eye could see, with the distance obscured by an impenetrable fog that signified the boundaries of his subconscious. The place was incredibly similar to the war memorial converted from the old third training area in the dream world Konohagakure. It was a stark contrast from the dismal sewer they had just left._

_As Inoichi had explained it earlier to Naruto, this area represented his personality as defined by his experiences in the dream world, while the sewer was his old personality. Inoichi believed that because his dream world mind was dominant, it would eventually assimilate the sewer portion of his subconscious when his memories finished merging. When would that merge finally finish, no one knew._

_Inoichi went to stand in front of the memorial wall. Naruto noticed that the man had gravitated towards the Y's section of the wall. The jounin interrogator idly traced his fingers over rows of names. Even standing several meters away, Naruto's strong eyesight let him make out rows of Yamanaka named shinobi KIA._

OOOOOO

Now that he had experienced life as a "normal" human, Naruto could compare the pros and cons being a Jinchuuriki brought. In the dream world, he had built his body up to optimal performance through a nutritious and healthy diet. In the real world, he had eaten a mainstay of cup ramen, mainly because store owners overcharged him on everything but that particular item. Naruto guessed he was lucky that he liked ramen enough, and that it could have been worse. However, despite the extremely poor diet he had endured for years, he never suffered from malnutrition, an effect he now knew to be from the Kyuubi no Yoko.

His lack of a nutritious diet also had no effect on his body growth, he grew to be just as big and well-formed as his dream world self, another effect that he chalked up to the Kyuubi.

As the ANBU medical staff had explained it to him, the Fourth's seal filtered the Kyuubi's corrosive chakra out into safe human chakra for Naruto's use, greatly boosting his reserves to several hundred, if not thousand times the chakra of even a jounin's pool. The hopefully short term downside to this was that Naruto had to completely retrain his chakra control from the ground up to suit his greatly increased pool. The doctors had said that even his badly botched shunshin into the Hokage's Tower had been extremely _lucky _in retrospect, and that the side effects could have been much, much worse than simply knocking himself out.

Naruto felt another pang of sorrow, Rin had died in the Kyuubi's attack, and therefore had never become the familiar ANBU infirmary nurse he had been used to. Despite all these benefits being a Jinchuuriki had brought, he would give them all up in an instant if it would have brought any of his friends back. He started tearing up again. _'Damn it, I thought I had gotten over this, I can't bring anyone back!'_ Naruto thought, he tried to wipe the tears away and sniffled.

Then there was the main benefit. Extremely rapid healing. He no longer had to stay in a hospital for weeks for combat injuries- the Kyuubi could heal them in minutes, seconds even. He was immune to most poisons and highly resistant to the rest. He would be very hard to kill.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. Maybe he should test this regenerative power out. Naruto swiftly withdrew a kunai from his holster and examined it. It was quite dull and had several nicks in it. In the real world, he didn't own many high quality goods. Most of his weapons had been scavenged from the trash or had been abandoned by others at the training grounds. Still, it would do.

He was about to make a cut on his palm when someone's hand suddenly reached out and grabbed his kunai holding arm, holding it firmly in place.

"Naruto, no!"

A worried looking silver haired man in a jounin's uniform had jumped right in front of him. Naruto flinched, he must have been seriously out of it to not notice him until he got to point blank range.

Naruto sputtered as he recognized the man, "Wha- Kakashi-taichou!?"

"I know it's bad now, but killing yourself is not the answer!" Kakashi continued, staring imploringly into Naruto's surprised azure blue eyes.

"Wha…kill myself?" Naruto asked, baffled. Suddenly it clicked and Naruto dropped the kunai in shock. The weapon clattered down on his apartment floor.

Naruto shook his head vigorously, "I wasn't going to kill myself taichou! I was just going to check out how fast my regeneration ability works! Honest!"

Kakashi hesitantly withdrew his hand from Naruto's. "O…Ok."

* * *

To be honest, it felt…wrong to hear Naruto call him captain, but he understood, in the dream world, he had been one of Naruto's ANBU captains.

"Erm…what are you doing here Kakashi-taichou?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi turned away, not facing Naruto, one hand scratching the back of his head.

"Ah…The Hokage wants to speak to you, I'm to bring you to him." The cyclopean shinobi explained.

Naruto nodded, he hadn't spoken to the Hokage since the old man had visited during his still confusing time in Inoichi's hands. He looked at his clothes- orange trousers and a black t-shirt, it was better than wearing that high visibility orange winter suit that he found in his closet. His peers must have thought him an idiot for wearing it all year round. He didn't have any other clothes though, only the surplus store sold him reasonably priced items, and it was difficult to find decent clothes that fit.

"Alright, let's go then." Naruto answered.

OOOOOO

The doors to the Hokage's office opened to admit Kakashi and Naruto, with the former leading the way in.

"Uzumaki Naruto reporting Hokage-sama." A serious looking Naruto said, saluting the Hokage.

Sarutobi Hiruzen returned the salute after a half-second of surprise and hesitation, looking quite morose at Naruto's address.

The Hokage, known in the rest of the elemental countries as the God of Shinobi for his near peerless mastery of ninjutsu turned to glare at the silver haired jounin standing to the side. "Kakashi, I told you to bring Naruto here over 2 hours ago. This is important business!"

Kakashi looked sheepish as Naruto stared at Kakashi in surprise. Even in the dream world, Kakashi was pretty laid back, but he was always punctual. Why had that changed in the real world?

"Eh…My apologies Hokage-sama, I was…delayed."

The Hokage harrumphed, but let it go. "Very well, now, on to more important things…First of all, how are you feeling Naruto?"

Naruto looked surprised at the question, "Er, as good as I can be I guess."

The Hokage nodded, "How are you adjusting? Any problems you're facing?"

Naruto put a hand to his chin, thinking, "Well yes, I have to get back into shape and fix up my chakra control…oh, and restock all my weapons. I seem to have been…lacking in the real world."

The Hokage sighed, walking back to his desk and looking over some papers. "All of your certifications and security clearances are identical to the ones in the real world. I'll write you out an equipment requisition for the ANBU armory, you know the way, it hasn't moved."

"Is Old Man Kenji still the quartermaster?" Naruto asked.

"Yup, 35 years and counting. He's even older than me you know!"

"Same in the dream world, I think he's married to the job." Naruto shared a smirk with the Sandaime.

"Oh, and another thing." The Hokage muttered. The old man snapped his fingers, a second later, a man with spikey brown hair appeared in the room. He had the distinctive white coat worn by ANBU Officers and a dog mask on.

Naruto reflexively snapped to attention, "Commander!"

The ANBU Commander glanced at Naruto for a second before deciding to return the salute, "At ease Uzumaki-san."

The Hokage took out his wooden pipe and lit it, taking a puff and sighing in contentment before turning to the others with a serious expression. "Naruto, as you know, while your mind and experience has carried over, your body hasn't. Considering that so far, everything we've found in the dream world has been nearly identical to the real world, including security protocols, we're going to have to give you the ANBU seal."

Naruto nodded in surprise. He had totally forgotten that he didn't have the seal anymore. The ANBU seal provided a myriad of tools at an operative's disposal. Far from being just a simple tattoo marking ANBU membership, the seal was an ingenious work of multiple seal masters throughout the decades. It acts as a normally untraceable and undetectable sensor signature. Through a top secret technique, ANBU operatives could use their own seal to ping the locations of their fellow operatives and confirm identification, useful during stealth missions. Furthermore, the Hokage and ANBU officers could send basic messages through the seal such as assemble orders. Those with the seal could also be reliably tracked within a certain distance from Konohagakure using a special room deep within the ANBU Headquarters. The seal and ping could not be detected in any way other than by having the seal. The seal could not be transferred to another person, nor had it ever been successfully copied. The seal also had health indicators that could inform ANBU HQ if an operative was under duress, this mechanic had proven vital in maintaining the secrecy of the workings of the seal. The seal could be remotely destroyed by ANBU HQ to maintain secrecy or to prevent a traitor from making off with a working copy of the seal- the latter of which had only been necessary once in the entire history of ANBU. Finally, the seal could also fade from outside appearance at the user's command so that an undercover or off duty ANBU would not be identified by the tattoo. Naruto knew how to work the seal and most of the secrets behind it- should he somehow fall into enemy hands without a seal but knowing how it worked, especially if HQ didn't know he was captured, results would be disastrous. Better to mark him now.

The Hokage went through a series of hand seals, activating the office's security measures. The office was protected by a complex structure of seals which rendered the room spy proof to all known methods, as well as making it inaccessible from the outside. The only thing that signified this privacy was a faint but constant visible chakra glow along the walls, ceiling and floor.

"Hold out your shoulder Uzumaki-san." The ANBU Commander said.

Naruto pulled up his T-shirt, exposing his left shoulder, the traditional place for the seal. The Commander began running through a series of hand seals, the formation of the ANBU seal was primarily chakra based; only the current ANBU Commander and the Hokage would know how to apply one. Naruto knew from experience that it would be a while before the seal would be finished.

While still in this position, Naruto turned only his head to face the Hokage again. "So Hokage-sama, what am I going to do now?"

The Hokage shook his head lightly, "You're going to continue resting for now. Because of your abilities and knowledge of Konoha's security protocols, I am promoting you back up to Tokubetsu Jounin rank. Unfortunately, in the current circumstances, I cannot make you a jounin sensei yet. I will still have to go through the council for everything else, but I can guarantee getting you your rightful rank back at least. We have finished examining your memories and found that you have the valid security clearance protocols up to A-level clearance."

Naruto nodded, calling on what he remembered about the council in peacetime. He had grown up during war time, so things had been different, but if he recalled correctly, all promotions beyond the genin level had to be reported to the council for discussion. Most of the time, this was a straight forward affair, although in his case…

"The meeting has already been scheduled for an hour from now, for you, Kakashi will accompany you to resupply and handle administrative work."

"Ah…do I have to Hokage-sama?" Kakashi balked, it would cut hours from his own time.

Naruto stared at the real world counterpart of his former captain with growing incredulity, how had the man grown to be so lazy?

"Yes, that's an order Kakashi. Besides, you wouldn't want to leave Naruto alone in this unfamiliar world of ours now would you?"

"Of course not Hokage-sama." The silver haired jounin sighed in defeat.

OOOOOO

The Konohagakure Village Council's meeting chambers were buried deep underneath the regular administrative building, protected by not only its depth, but a lattice of chakra and seal protection. The chambers were encased in solid metal, making it nearly impossible to tunnel in. Once the layers of countermeasures activated- which they did at every meeting- access to the chambers was only possible through one entrance guarded by ANBU. An emergency entrance could be made only by disabling the seals from the inside. Not even the legendary Fourth Hokage's Hiraishin no jutsu was able to penetrate the sealing architecture.

"Seals are activated Hokage-sama, we are secure." The ANBU Commander reported.

The Hokage nodded, "Thank you Dog."

The Hokage then took his seat, the ANBU Commander standing beside him.

Hiruzen gazed across the chamber. There were three sections to the room, one for the Hokage's Council which consisted of him, his pair of old teammates Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura, Elder Shimura Danzo, and the Jounin Commander Nara Shikaku, who was also the Nara Clan head. The Hokage's Council section was at the heightened head of the chamber, overlooking the other two sections, each of which was set up in a half circle facing each other.

The second section was for the clan heads of Konoha, each representing their respective clans. Yamanaka Inoichi represented the Yamanaka Clan, and the blond man nodded to Hiruzen from his seat. Akimichi Chouza, Inuzuka Tsume, Aburame Shibi, Hyuuga Hiashi, and several dozen other Clan heads were all seated by now in their half circle section.

The last section was for the Civilian's Council, normally made up of the leaders of the civilian sectors of Konoha, the merchant's guild and others. Today, their section was totally devoid of people, as the topic of discussion for this day was purely a shinobi affair.

Some of the council members looked confused at their sudden summons, but most took it in stride and waited attentively for the meeting to begin.

Nara Shikaku nodded to the Hokage, he had been informed of the recent events surrounding Uzumaki Naruto before-hand. The jounin commander stood up, eyeing each of his fellow council members.

"We are now beginning today's emergency summons meeting by the Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen. As the Jounin Commander, I hereby call this meeting into session." Shikaku announced, before sitting back down.

The Hokage thanked Shikaku before standing up. "I called this emergency meeting together to inform the council of a tragedy befalling a valued citizen of Konohagakure and our steps to address it."

Much of the council leaned forward in anticipation. Hiruzen's own former teammates and friends looked at the Hokage with perplexed surprise.

Hiruzen continued, "The citizen in question is Uzumaki Naruto, who as this council knows, is the jailor for the Kyuubi no Yoko."

Silence filled the chamber. Hiruzen looked around at everyone to quickly gauge their reactions. Most of the clan heads looked surprised, and some looked pensive. Turning to glance at his advisors, he noticed in particular that Danzo looked genuinely surprised. His old friend always showed a great interest in Naruto and Hiruzen knew the man to always keep a close eye on the boy. That even Danzo looked surprised could mean that he had successfully kept Naruto's circumstances hidden.

"The details as follows regarding this matter are classified as an S-Class secret, punishable by death."

Some council members nodded in understanding, and everyone listened with rapt attention.

"Three days ago, an event occurred during Chuunin Umino Iruka's Academy class that drastically changed Naruto's state of being. He fell asleep and unconsciously drew upon the Kyuubi's chakra to create a pocket reality. The best working theory we have for this event is called the Dream World Theory. Yamanaka Inoichi spearheaded the effort on discerning what happened in the pocket reality by conducting a _full_ mind interrogation on Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto, with the Kyuubi's potent chakra, managed to _create_ a temporary _omniscient_ replica of our world, identical in just about every way. Naruto's mind inhabited a body in that world, and lived through approximately twelve years of life as a completely new person during the time his real body was asleep. From what we can tell, none of his real world memories were brought with him to his new body. He had a completely clean slate in what we are calling the Dream World."

Danzo leaned forward, looking intrigued. Hiruzen noticed out of the corner of his eye and made a small smile.

"There was a single clear factor that differentiated events in the dream world compared to the real world." Hiruzen paused, taking in all the heavy anticipation in the air, before dropping the hammer.

"The Kyuubi no Yoko never attacked Konohagakure 12 years ago."

Sharp intakes of breath could be heard from pretty much every member, as their faces lighted up with shock. Danzo himself sat back in his seat, hard.

"Uzumaki Naruto grew up as a well-loved member of Konoha. In the dream world, 9 years ago, Sunagakure, Iwagakure, and a new village Otogakure formed an alliance and invaded Konohagakure and by extension, the Country of Fire. The war lasted for over half a decade, officially ending 3 years ago. The Fourth Hokage died in battle in the second year of the war after obliterating much of Otogakure's force and over a thousand shinobi on the battlefield by himself, effectively evening the odds Konoha faced. Incidentally, Otogakure is an emerging hidden village in the real world as well. The Dream World so perfectly mirrors the Real World that we believe things like secret bases, layouts, plans, and statistics are similar or identical. Already we have analysts poring over the information gleaned from Naruto's memories, and the preliminary results are proving fruitful."

Hiruzen paused to let what he said sink in before continuing, "The war between Konoha and our allies against the Three Village Alliance was known as the Fourth Great Shinobi War. Uzumaki Naruto fought in that war as a shinobi of Konohagakure, joining the Academy at the age of 5, and becoming a genin at the age of 6. A basic overview of his record shows that he became a chuunin at 8, and a tokubetsu jounin at 11. Immediately prior to his awakening from the dream world, he had just been chosen as a full jounin to command a genin team at the age of 12. As a result of his awakening, his world was erased from existence, along with everyone in it. Any questions?"

It was quiet enough in the council chambers that you could hear a pin drop. Until someone broke it.

Hyuuga Hiashi stood up, nodding respectfully at the Hokage, "With respect Hokage-sama, and respect to Yamanaka-san's abilities, but can we be sure of the veracity of Uzumaki Naruto's memories of this Dream World. Are we sure that this is not some trick of the Kyuubi's?" he questioned, several clan heads nodded in support of Hiashi's question.

The Hokage smiled at the Hyuuga Clan head, "We are sure Hiashi. Not only has Inoichi's mind interrogation proved conclusive, the Dream World so perfectly replicated the Real World in every aspect that even the village security protocols were identical. Uzumaki Naruto had full A-level security clearance. All security protocols he knew are valid and identical to the ones we use. In regards to concerns about the Kyuubi no Yoko, our sealing experts have examined the seal and found no deficit in it. My student Jiraiya himself is coming back to Konoha to personally examine the seal as well. Uzumaki Naruto's current state of being is that his Dream World personality is dominant within his body. He now has both his old memories as well as his Dream World memories. With it comes all his knowledge and experience. Aside from his body, he is now far above the capabilities of an academy student. He was a capable jounin of Konoha, and knows all of the up to date protocols. In the Dream World, he was marked as C-Rank in the bingo books."

There were understandable gasps of shock at the last part. The bingo books of each nation marked shinobi that were recognized enough to have a bounty on their heads, and shinobi powerful enough that they were internationally recognized with a rank going from D to C, B, A and finally S.

Simply making it onto a bingo book was considered a sign of being a skilled shinobi, making it up to C-rank was a mark of being an uncommonly skilled one. Out of the hundreds of thousands of shinobi in the world, under a thousand had been marked as C-rank.

"Naruto is acclimating to the many shocks he's experiencing. In the Dream World, things are drastically different. The Uchiha Massacre did not happen and Naruto had friends within the clan. Among the more personally related things, Kumogakure's kidnapping attempt did not occur. Hyuuga Hizashi survived and had another child, one who coincidentally tied the record for youngest chuunin promotion at the age of 6 I might add. Yamanaka Inoichi can perform memory transfer jutsus for those of you who wish to view some of the memories of the Dream World for yourself." Memories that carefully excluded any sensitive information such as Naruto's parentage of course.

Over the next half an hour, almost every clan head viewed some of the memories. Their reactions were varied- Some, like Inuzuka Tsume, the matriarch of the Inuzuka Clan looked stunned at the revelations afterwards. Each of his old teammates and Danzo saw the memories as well. Danzo himself looked contemplative of what he had seen. Most striking of all was Hiashi's reaction after seeing memories of Naruto's interaction with the Hyuuga Clan. A solitary tear rolled down his cheeks as he shut his eyes tightly after the memory transfer ended, something incredibly telling for a clan that prided itself on decorum and their strict control over their emotions. Hiruzen smiled.

'_Just as planned_,_'_ He thought.

When everyone had settled, Hiruzen began speaking again, "Uzumaki Naruto is for all intents and purposes, an experienced, capable, and highly loyal shinobi of Konoha now. Even though most of his accomplishments hold no physical value in the real world, I move to credit him anyways. I've promoted him to the rank of Tokubetsu Jounin. Although I was apparently in the process of promoting him to full jounin when he returned to the real world, I believe he'll need some recovery time before taking on those duties. We are also in the process of re-certifying him in the various courses he's completed in the Dream World. As most of those were knowledge based, we're confident that he'll be successful. In addition, I move to credit him with his mission record from the Dream World. All in favor?"

There were many affirmative nods to the Hokage's words. Even those who would normally be hostile to the Kyuubi's container, and there were more than a few on the council, nodded in agreement as well, still buoyant on the emotions garnered from Naruto's memories.

As the voting process simmered down, the Hokage seemed to remember something, "One more thing, in order to preserve the element of surprise as well as to explain the events of the last few days, we are coming up with a second layer of classification secret over the already existing S-Class secret. This decoy secret will be a plausible explanation for any changes in Naruto and should deter enemy espionage probes into the real secret and the knowledge we gained from it. Details will be sent to you all within four days. Thank you."

Finally, as the Hokage called the meeting to a close, Yamanaka Inoichi sat back down on his seat, breathing hard and sweating after performing his memory transfer jutsu several dozen times in a row. But the man glanced over at the Hokage and gave a knowing smile.

* * *

As the Hokage left the council chambers, his sensitive ears, honed by decades of training and experience picked up whispers of conversations by the council members.

Huddled closely in a corner were his old teammates Koharu and Homura, whispering to each other.

Homura, a bespectacled man, gray haired and bearded was nodding to Koharu, "Well, Uzumaki knows about the Kyuubi no Yoko now; perhaps his newfound experience will cement his loyalty to the village and help him control the demon better?"

Koharu, whom Hiruzen knew had a restrained grudge against Naruto because of the boy's tenant was silent. A long moment of indecision was apparent was on her face before she gave a tiny nod. "Maybe."

Hiruzen smiled, it was progress, at least. He turned his head and craned his ears toward another group.

On the far end of the room, Nakatomi Hideo, head of a clan that was famous for its trapping skills bowed to Hyuuga Hiashi, "What do you think Hyuuga-sama?"

"As it appears, the delinquent Uzumaki Naruto has disappeared, leaving behind a seasoned and dedicated Konoha-nin. In the memories I viewed, he showed confidence, loyalty, exemplary skill and the experience only a battlefield can bring. I never did take his proclamations of becoming the Hokage seriously, perhaps I should now that he is much more mature." The Hyuuga patriarch replied.

The Kurama Clan head looked unconvinced, "Still…he has the demon inside him, we have historically impeded the boy's progress in order to keep the demon in check. Now that he circumvented that and gained power through this dream world of his, our efforts were in vain, the demon can break out easier!"

The head of the Morino Clan snorted dismissively, "I keep telling you, Jinchuuriki don't work that way. The host gaining more power would actually help him retain control. Maybe now he'll stop pulling those damned silly pranks of his and start pulling some weight for the village!"

Hiashi shook his head as well, "Yes, I am sure this new Naruto will prove to be a fine shinobi of Konohagakure."

That was the last Hiruzen heard before he walked out the door.

OOOOOO

Author's End Note: I got back around the end of July and got working on this chapter, but I got stuck for about a week with writer's block on the last part. In the end, I just decided to cut out the last fifth or so of the chapter to upload faster.

The revelation that a "dream world" has actually been documented might put a damper on people's expectations a bit. Without giving away too much though, I can tell you that like Inoichi said, they don't actually know everything about this theory. They may be wrong in some of their beliefs about it…

So to sum it all up, the dream world was a rather convoluted way to get Naruto powered up beyond his canon self. Might be a letdown, not what people were expecting? But that power comes at a rather steep cost, soon to be seen…

Also, I think I write crappy dialogue, anyone got any suggestions on how to improve it?


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